The Visitor
by Wraith Fox
Summary: A strange and disturbing sequence of images on an educational video mark only the beginning of a nightmare for the Mahora Campus. Chapter 11. The first night comes to a close. On hiatus.
1. It's Coming

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: This fic takes place after the Mahorafest, as you may have already deducted, but since I haven't finished that arc yet I'm not sure if I got some of the details correct. I consider it a divergence after the Mahorafest, with Chachamaru still in her original body design. Please, if you have any corrections for me or observations don't hesitate to let me know.**

The Visitor

By

Wraith Fox

It's Coming

"Good morning, class." Negi greeted his class in English as he stepped into homeroom 3-A. Three girls quickly slip into the room behind him: his roommates Asuna and Konoka and the latter's omnipresent bodyguard Setsuna. Conversations ended in a rush of hurried murmurs and whispers as his students made their way to their assigned seats. Once everyone was in place they bowed and answered, "Good morning, Negi-sensei." The chorus of voices responded in English as well, some with more confidence and less accent than others.

Negi counted off the seconds in his mind between his arrival and the girls taking their seats and greeting him in turn. Only ten seconds? This is turning out to be one of the more orderly days. His smile broadened when he reached his desk and took in his students with his gaze. Briefly his eyes rested on one empty seat and his thoughts turned to now absent student, and descendant, Chao Ling-Shen. He forced his mind away from her and the events over Mahorafest, turning his eyes over the rest of the class to finish taking attendance.

Asuna-san. Konoka-san. Ku-roshi... er Ku-san. Hakase-

He blinks once as he notes the empty seat beside Ku Fei. "Hakase-san is absent?" He mused aloud. Ayaka raised her hand and he turned to the class representative nodding, "Yes, Iincho-san?"

Standing she nods her head towards the desk, "Hai, Negi-sensei. Shizuna-sensei came and left a note for you just before you arrived. She said something about Hakase-san calling in sick this morning." Negi frowned and looked down at his desk, lifting his books to find the note just as Ayaka said. "Oh!" He laughed quietly in embarrassment and turned his attention back to Ayaka. "Thank you, Iincho-san."

"The pleasure is all mine, Negi-sensei." She replied a broad and warm smile on her features as she retakes her seat. A brief snicker from a seat a few rows back wipes the expression from the girl's face and she casts a brief glance over her shoulder in search of the source of the sound before turning her eyes back forward, hands folded neatly on the desktop and her back straight. Somewhere, Asuna smirked.

Negi chuckled quietly to himself though he hoped the two of them would keep things down to occasional remarks and snide looks today and not break out into full-scale battle. Pushing those worries to the wayside, he finished taking attendance and nodded once when he found all the other students present. "Well class today we're going to watch a video to help you better distinguish between regional and slang terms used in English." He turned to Kazumi. "Asakura-san they should have brought the player and television up by now. Could you go out into the hallway and bring it in please?"

"Hai!" The redheaded paparazzi grinned and stood up from her seat and marched past him into the hallway. The seat beside Kazumi was empty as well, at least on first glance, but the barest glimpse of a pale and feminine figure floating at the girl's shoulder revealed that desk's otherworldly occupant Sayo Aisaka. Moments later the pair had returned, rolling a television and player into the classroom and stopping it next to Negi's desk. He thanked her and the girl and her phantom companion returned to their seats.

He moved to turn off the classroom lights while Natsumi and Mana drew the blinds on the windows, the strong streams of morning sunlight reduced to small but bright glows around the edges of the curtains. "I shouldn't have to say this but everyone please be quiet while we watch the video and pay attention. There may be a quiz on the terms we see here." He heard a smattering of groans, some feigned though there was nothing that could mimic the hard glare he felt from the red Baka Ranger: Asuna.

_Sorry Asuna-san…_, he thought to himself as he started up the video and took a seat at his desk to go over the assignments later in the period. He listened as the opening music begins and a Japanese voice explained some of the nuances and double meaning that comes with the more casual use of English. Despite his best efforts, he found himself watching the video after a few moments, turning in his seat to better watch.

There were establishing shots of New York City at night, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty leaving little doubt as to which city this was. The narrator continued his explanation as the camera moved down the street and eventually came to a stop, focusing on a street vendor and a Japanese tourist approaching him.

"Excuse me, sir? May I ask what you are selling here?" The tourist began.

"Well I'm selling hot dogs and elephant ears. What can I get you?" The vendor replied with a wide grin.

As the tourist begins to respond, the camera began to drift. It was subtle at first but slowly the tourist and vendor began to disappear off one side of the frame as the camera turned away from them and began to move forward past the actors. Their voices were audible for a moment more before they faded into the ambience of traffic on the street and pedestrians making their way down the sidewalk.

Negi felt some puzzlement at this. Was it going to move to another demonstration? If so, why didn't the video show the lesson at the end of the previous one? Apparently, he was not the only one who thought this was strange, a glance towards his students showed some confusion among them as well.

The camera moved alongside a wrought iron fence with bushes and trees growing thickly just beyond it. The camera turned suddenly, slipped between the bars of the fence, and began to glide through the dense flora, the plants growing so closely together that the night sky and the towering buildings on all sides had departed leaving only branches and leaves filling the lens.

"Is this a safari special now?" Haruna called out and there was a scattering of laughter among the students. Negi found himself laughing too despite the strange sense of unease that had begun to creep in on the edges of his awareness.

As if on cue, the camera broke free from the bushes and was wound its way along a pedestrian walk path, short iron rods with chains strung between them lined either side of the path and the darkness of night still filled the sky. There was no sound at all on the video now, the only sounds heard being the breathing of his students and the occasional shifting of a chair across the classroom floor. The camera panned up to take in the destination of the path and a small murmur rippled through the room as a tall building came into view.

It was the Mahora Science Dept.

The camera continued its journey up the path and towards the building the motion smooth as if it were gliding on a dolly. The door to the lobby opened on its own, swinging inwards to allow the camera a smooth and uninterrupted journey into the building. It moved down an adjoining hall and the stairway door opened just as easily as the lobby door. The camera was moving a little faster now, gliding up stairs in the same smooth and gliding motion it had exhibited all this time. A dolly was definitely out of the question.

"Negi-sensei...?" One of his students, Ako he thought, but her voice seemed far away as he felt all his attention drawn towards the television and the camera's strange journey.

The camera swung suddenly, the door leading out onto one of the floors of the building opened wide and it was through and down the hall. There were not many lights on in the building at this late hour and it almost gave him the impression that he was pushing, or drawn, through a shadowy realm. Light was visible beneath a door on the left side of the hallway, the camera quickly coming alongside it and stopping. It swiveled towards the door as it began to open and the camera glided slowly into the room.

It appeared to be a lab of some sort, computer workstations lining one wall while a table with various electronic tools dangling from articulated arms attached the ceiling overhead. A small figure donned in a large white lab coat hunched over the table with their back turned to the camera. Two tightly braided dark pigtails draped down its back left no mystery as to who the figure was however.

"Hakase-san," Negi murmured as he pushed himself to his feet, moving from his desk to look more closely at the television and the image displayed. The urge to scream a warning to his student suddenly filled him but there was no way she could hear him.

Satomi continued her work for several moments but the soft motion of her hands ceased and her posture straightened as if suddenly becoming aware that someone was watching her. Slowly the girl turned to look over her shoulder, eyes wide and curious behind her glasses. The screen started to get brighter, finer details washed out by a white sheen. Satomi's glasses seemed to catch and reflect the glow, giving her eyes an unearthly appearance.

When the brightness began to fade, Satomi and the lab were gone. The camera had resumed its movement but this time down a hallway, that was unfamiliar. Sliding doors lined either side of the hall and despite the absence of any visible lights; the entire scene seemed too suffused with a dim whitish glow. A door stood at the very end of the hallway, the camera continuing its tireless trek towards it. Suddenly the picture vanished, replaced with a black title card upon which only two words written in white capital letters in English.

IT'S COMING

The title card disappeared and the strange hallway had returned. The camera was much closer to the door at the end now. Negi felt a wave of irrational fear wash over him. He did not want that door to open, even as he saw it swing slowly outwards upon its hinges revealing what appeared to be a Western-style living room beyond. Two armchairs and a couch placed in a neat semi-circle around a low coffee table and a television set against the wall.

The camera went straight ahead, stopped suddenly and began to slowly pan towards the left. There was hint of movement at the edge of the frame, frantic and feverish before another black title card appeared on the screen. Two more words were written upon the card in white capital letters.

THE FEAST

A long dinner table now took up the bulk of the frame, chairs lining both sides and a white tablecloth draped neatly over its length. The chairs were empty except for the ones at either end of the table, occupied by a man and a woman. At least that is how they were dressed, one in a neat tuxedo and the other in a dinner gown, but their faces were obscured, a blurring effect used on their entire heads.

Despite the fine dishes and silverware set out, decanters of wine placed within easy reach of anyone who were to sit at the table, the furious motions of the diners' arms seemed to make a mockery of the formality of the setting. They reached out towards a pale, broken object centered on the table and ripped gobbets of flesh from the mass, speckles, and droplets of scarlet dribbled and spattered against the stark white cloth and stained the unused dishes.

Torn stumps marked the position of the things legs, its ribs torn up and outward revealing a deep cavity that shined with a moistness that reflected the light. A blurring effect similar to that used to hide the features of the diners hid one end of it from view. The object shook and shuddered with the ferocity of the diners' actions, their hands almost in constant motion, the handfuls of flesh disappearing almost as soon as it reached the their mouths before reaching out for even more of the pale meat. The continuing silence of the video made the audible gasps and murmurs from his students seem all that much louder.

Through his growing dread Negi was struck by a thought about the shape of the heads obscured by the blurs. They were far too big. In addition, something was wrong with their hands but he could not quite tell what it was.

There was a jump cut, the macabre dinner scene had vanished, and they appeared to be looking into a small storage room of some kind. A bare bulb dangled from wire overhead, nearly empty shelves lined the back wall, plastic cleaning bottles, and empty boxes strewn across the floor.

The camera was still and suddenly someone walked into frame from the foreground. White lab coat. Twin black braids. Satomi stood in the center of the frame and waved one hand, a grin plastered on her features, her other hand clutching the coat shut in front of her.

Negi let out a breath he was not aware he had been holding, a heavy sigh that echoed throughout the classroom followed quickly by a few nervous giggles.

"Mou, Satomi-san…" Madoka murmured.

Then Satomi opened up her lab coat, revealing her nude form beneath and a sudden embarrassed silence filled the classroom. Negi felt his cheeks burn with surprise and shock, paralyzed for a moment before he began to move to turn off the video when things suddenly got worse.

Satomi placed both of her hands on her bare stomach and dug her fingers deep into the flesh; crimson welled around her digits and began to dribble down her skin. The muscles in her arms flexed and her flesh pulled apart, ropes of intestine uncoiling from the widening gash. Satomi kept grinning.

The horror had frozen him again but the screams of some of his students snapped him back into the moment. He furiously jammed the stop button and the image vanished from the screen, revealing only the deep blue screen as the television waited for input once again.

He looked back over the classroom, the dimness of the room suddenly seemed threatening to him and he moved to turn the lights back on. Fuka sat hunched forward in her seat, tiny hands clasped over her eyes. Further back in the room her twin, Fumika, was in the same position, Akira leaning down to whisper in the girl's ear, one hand soothingly patting along her trembling back.

The light seemed to break some kind of spell and all of the girls began talking at once. Some of their voices were high and frightened while others seemed gruff and angry.

"What the hell was that?" Asuna called out from her seat arms crossing over her front, her features scrunching into an expression of extreme disgust. "Satomi-san's got a whole lot of nerve to do something like that! No wonder she called in sick. She didn't want all of us to kick her butt!"

There were murmurs of agreement from some of her classmates, quiet at first but growing in confidence as the seconds passed. Ayaka still seemed to be in shock from what she had just seen but she gave a firm nod at Asuna's words. It was strange to see Ayaka not upbraid Asuna for an outburst.

"But, Asuna-chan," Konoka spoke up, her features were pale and her eyes still wide. "Do you really think Hakase-chan would do something like this?"

"Of course she would! She's got friends in the Engineering Club, right? They can do amazing things with special effects you know." She grinned but Negi could see doubt dancing behind her heterochromatic eyes belying the confidence in her voice and expression. He felt some himself but if she had called in sick this morning then this truly must be a prank of some kind.

Still, for a prank it seemed especially grotesque and mean-spirited. Negi turned his eyes towards the back of his classroom to seek out Chachamaru and Evangeline. The former was joint creation of Hakase and Chao, the latter was the Magi that Chachamaru served.

The two were seated, the gynoid at the desk in front of the wizardess', and Chachamaru's expression was hard to read, though her furrowed brow made her seem more confused than concerned or disgusted. Evangeline was even harder to read, the vampiress leaning back in her seat with her arms folded on the desktop, eyes still focused on the screen of the television.

Negi stood before his class and bowed towards them, eyes closed tight. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, everyone! I had no idea. Please forgive me!" He bowed again. He heard the chattering and clamor stop and he looked up to see his students watching him.

"Negi-sensei, nobody is blaming you." The voice was soft but still strong enough to be heard by everyone in the room. Nodoka looked out at him from her purple bangs. She smiled at him, but the pale color of her cheeks and the light sheen of sweat on her brow revealed just how troubled she was.

Beside Nodoka, Ako swayed in her seat, her features more green than pale. Negi suddenly remembered her phobia of blood and his heart went out to her as the purple haired librarian reached out to steady her classmate.

"Yeah, Negi-sensei." Fuka was wiping at her cheeks with the heels of her hands, the hint of tears still clung to the edges of her eyes but the elder Narutaki twin smiled at him. "We know you wouldn't do anything as mean as this."

"Of course he wouldn't!" Ayaka go to her feet, slapping her hand down on her desktop. "Negi-sensei is pure and chivalrous! He'd never be party to such a cruel joke."

"Watch out, Negi! The shotacon is ready to pounce at any second it looks like."

"What'd you say, grandpa lover!"

"You heard me!"

The next thing Negi knew Asuna and Ayaka were in each other's faces, shoving and slinging insults at one another in between their attacks. Most of the other girls stood up in their seats and started to cheer, placing bets on Baka Red or the Class Rep. Negi sighed and put his hand to his head. So went his dreams of having an orderly day today. Still this made it seem like things were almost back to normal.

The sheen of normalcy ended when Ako raised her hand, her other cupped to her mouth. Considering how strongly she reacted to even a little bit of blood, Negi was surprised that she was able to contain herself at all.

"Yes, Izumi-san you're excused." He smiled sympathetically when he saw relief flood her eyes and she got up from her desk and nearly ran out of the classroom. Fuka looked after her and then raised her own hand, her young features twisted with fright.

"Fuka-san?"

"May I go to the nurse's office, Negi-sensei? I'm not feeling well."

A few more hands went up around the room: Fumika, Makie and Nodoka.

He nodded once and offered them an apologetic smile. "Yes. You may all go. Please, take care and get some rest." The girls got to their feet, Fuka waiting for her twin to meet her at the door before shuffling out, Makie and Nodoka just behind them, murmuring soft words of comfort to the younger girls as they left.

The small procession of girls leaving the room seemed to take all the life that had came back into it with Asuna and Ayaka's sparring. The two girls seemed to look almost embarrassed for a moment before disengaging from each other and returning to their seats. Zazie, without any prompting, began to open the curtains. The sunlight that streamed in seemed much more wholesome and comforting than the electrical lights overhead and a little more of the tension in the room withered away.

Negi prompted his students to get out their textbooks and began to go over the lessons he had planned for the day. He seemed to be going through the motions however; the images from the video kept springing to the forefront of his mind. And try as he might he could not banish them completely. Looking into the wide and wondering eyes of his students, he saw that they could not either.

* * *

Nodoka lay on one of the beds in the nurse's office looking up at the ceiling with wide eyes hidden by her bangs. The soft breathing of Makie in the bed on her left side moved in counterpoint to the breathing of the Narutaki twins on her right side. The room was quiet and cool and should have done much to soothe her nerves and those of her classmates.

However, it could not.

The images kept circling in her mind: the table with its strange and voracious diners and their grotesque meal, Satomi grinning at the camera as she tore her own abdomen open. A soft whimper from one of the twins reached her ears, as if she and the younger girl had visited that particular sight at the same time. She turned her head to look at the girls, lying side by side in the bed, clasping hands between them. She caught Fumika's eye and tried to offer her a reassuring smile the effort sabotaged by the fact that she did not feel sure herself at the moment.

She heard the door to the office open on the other side of the curtain surrounding their beds. There was a murmured conversation and soon after she saw her classmate Ako duck around the side of the curtain and offer a small, if queasy, smile before sitting herself on the edge of the twins' bed. The girls slowly sat up and Nodoka could hear Makie shifting in her bed as well.

"Ako-san," Nodoka began. "We thought you would already be in here after…" She blushed and just left it at that, hands wringing together over her stomach.

The pale-haired girl laughed a little but it sounded forced. "I went back to the classroom afterwards but Negi-sensei took one look at me and told that since all of you had come here that I should too, since I'm the nurse's assistant." She blushed just a little and looked over Nodoka and the rest. "So here I am. Helping."

Nodoka smiled the thought of Negi's kindness doing much to lighten her spirits. "Arigato, Ako-san." Nodoka murmured, the words echoed by the other girls in the beds around her. All the expressions of gratitude made Ako duck her head, her blush deepening a shade.

"Ano…" Makie was sitting up in her bed now as well. "Why would, Satomi-chan pull such a mean and, well, gross prank?" Her nose wrinkled a little at the memory and Ako seemed grow green once more at the mere mention of what they had witnessed but she managed to suppress her nausea.

"Yeah," Fumika murmured. She leaned against her elder twin and Fuka circled a comforting arm around her sister. "That did seem really mean for, Satomi-chan." Fuka continued her sister's train of thought. "Do you think she's mad because Chao-chan's gone away? She was the only girl that she ever really seemed close to."

"Satomi-san always seemed a little, well, different." Ako murmured as she looked down at her lap, feet lightly tapping together. "But this…" She gave a brief shudder. "She could get into big trouble."

Nodoka nodded as she listened to her classmates try to rationalize what they had seen. She hoped they were right and this was just a prank, but she felt a tickling in the back of her mind that this was something else. She had no good reason to think such a thing. Everything Asuna had said back in the classroom was true. Satomi did have friends in the Engineering Club and her own technical skills were quite amazing. Pulling off something like that video should be child's play for someone like Satomi.

"…Don't you, Honya-chan?"

Nodoka blinked once and her back straightened. "Eh?" She looked around to see that all her classmates were looking at her expectantly.

"You think it was a prank don't you, Honya-chan?" Makie repeated her question a small smile upon her features. Her expression seemed fragile somehow to Nodoka and as she looked from her to the rest of her friends, she saw it mirrored on all of their faces. They were looking to her to confirm their idea and put their fears to rest.

"Oh. O-Of course I do. She called in sick this morning right? And that video showed her at night so…" She gave a little shrug and offered her classmates a smile. Her answer seemed to be the one they were hoping for and she felt a small twinge of guilt at the light that came into their eyes as they nodded in agreement.

She hoped that she was right.

* * *

Negi stepped out of the faculty room his young face a map of thoughtfulness as he reflected on his talk with Takahata.

After class he had collected the video and sought out his friend and fellow teacher to report on what he had seen and what Takahata thought it might mean. He had found him in the faculty room just as he expected, poring over a small stack of worksheets on the desk before him.

"Negi-kun!" The older man smiled at Negi for a moment but it faded when he read the concern on his face. "What is it?" He was all seriousness now, turning in his seat to face the younger teacher more fully, leaning forward to meet his eyes.

Negi explained what happened in class: Satomi calling in sick that morning and then the bizarre and disturbing images on the video tape. He handed it over to Takahata, the man looking at it closely for a moment as if trying to find something in its appearance to hint at what Negi said it contained before setting it aside on his desk.

"Well," Takahata began. "It's hard to believe that Satomi-chan would pull a prank along these lines, Negi-kun. I mean, she's always been a little strange but…" He gives a little shake of his head, "But I can't think of any other explanation. I was here when Shizuna-san took the call and she didn't seem to notice anything unusual."

Negi nodded and cast another look towards the video resting on the desk. Takahata followed his gaze. "If she did do this as a prank, Negi-kun, she could be in really big trouble. Vandalizing school property and upsetting her classmates like that isn't something that can be overlooked."

Negi felt his chest tighten at the prospect. He had avoided any serious discipline issues with his students so far (grudge-holding vampires and wayward future descendant's aside) and the possibility of having to put up Satomi for suspension or worse was upsetting but part of his responsibilities as her teacher.

"Well I'm going to see if I can get a hold of her now." Negi murmured and moved around to the other side of the table, seating himself in his own cubicle and getting out the list of his students' contact numbers. Takahata watched him for a moment more before going back to grading the papers before him.

Satomi had two numbers listed: one for the lab in which she mostly stayed and another for her cell. Negi picked up his phone and dialed the cell number first. He leaned back into his chair and reached up to toy absently with his tie as listened to the ringing tone.

Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

He hung up the receiver and took a small breath before picking it up again and dialing the number of the lab. The dull ringing tone droned in his ear and he looked around the room, around his desk, trying to find something to focus on and drive his growing worry from his mind. After the seventh ring Negi sighed and hung up the receiver again.

"Nothing?" Negi looked up quickly. Takahata was still looking over the papers on his desk but he knew his question had been directed at him.

Negi gave a small shake of his head and sighed. "I'm going to the Science Building to see if I can find her. Sometimes she turns her phones off when she's conducting some experiments." Takahata nodded but he didn't look wholly convinced.

Negi sighed as he looked up and down the hallway outside the faculty room, his wand strapped across his back and bobbing slightly as he shouldered into his coat. Takahata hadn't seemed too convinced about the possibility of a prank and that had bothered him.

What if it wasn't a prank? What if what they had seen was real?

He gave a firm shake of his head. He won't find anything out just standing around and worrying. He made his way down the hallway towards the entrance when he heard a familiar voice call to him from behind.

"Negi!" Asuna was running down the hall towards him, Konoka and Setsuna following quickly behind her. She drew to a stop before him and looked down into his face, arms crossing over her chest. "Where do you think you're going, huh?"

He blinked up at her once before simply stating, "I was going to the Science Building to look for Satomi-san. I couldn't reach her by phone."

Asuna frowned, "Really? Well we're going to tag along with you. Satomi's got a lot to answer for!" She shifted from foot to foot, "I don't think she's had the pleasure of experiencing the Asuna Kick." She held up a hand to forestall any protest from Negi. "She's getting off light, Negi-bozu. She deserves a good kick to the behind for what she did to us."

"But Asuna-chan…" Konoka spoke up. "If Hakase-chan really did do this then there must be some explanation. I didn't like it any more than anyone else but maybe she's going through a really hard time right now." Setsuna remained quiet, her _nodachi_, Yuunagi, strapped to her back, but the flinty look in her eyes showed her reasons were more aligned to Asuna's than Konoka's.

"Hard time or not she has some explaining to do." Asuna sniffed and then fixed Negi with her blue and green eyes. "Don't you think it's best if some of her classmates talked to her as well instead of just her teacher? She needs to hear how much she upset everybody from us directly."

He thought about it for a moment before he nodded, "I think you have a point, Asuna-san." He looked over his students and gave a little smile, "Let's go see if we can talk some sense into her."

"Or clobber some." Asuna murmured but her grin was playful as she looked back at him.

The group made its way out of the school and into the warm afternoon sunlight; the rays were caught and reflected by the school's many windows giving the building the appearance of being studded with many diamonds along its face. They were making their way down the steps when Konoka spied two more of their classmates walking ahead of them.

"Eva-chan! Chachamaru-chan!"

The blonde girl froze her frame tensing visibly before she relaxed and turned to face the approaching group. The tall gynoid at her side stopped and turned with her in perfect synchronization. "Well well, if it isn't the Negi Squad. Where's the small and shy one?" She smirked slightly. Chachamaru remained silent, inclining her head in a barely perceptible nod to them.

"Honya-chan wasn't feeling well after…" Konoka didn't finish. Evangeline's smirk faded and she put her hands on her hips, head tilting to one side as she looked more closely at them. Konoka spoke again, quickly changing the subject. "Don't you and Chachamaru-chan have Tea Ceremony Club today? You look like you two are heading home already."

Evangeline shook her head, running one hand through her blonde mane and giving it a little toss. "They left a message on the bulletin board saying that the meeting place had been changed. It's a little more out of the way than I'd like and I just don't feel like heading out there today." Her lips twisted into a near pout and for a moment, she seemed more like a petulant young girl than the centuries-old vampiress she was.

"Oh I know what you mean, Eva-chan. Last week my Fortune-Telling Club changed their meeting place too. It happens sometimes." Konoka beamed at the vampire.

"Not to me it doesn't." Evangeline groused. "I've been going to this school a lot longer than you have, girl and this is the first time the meeting place has ever been changed." She heaved a soft sigh before she fixed her gaze on Negi. "So where are you headed off to, bouya?"

"We were going to the Science Building to see if we could find, Satomi-san. I tried calling her at the school but couldn't reach her." Negi stood a little straighter. "We're worried about her. It's strange for her to do something like this."

"Everything that girl does is strange." The vampiress sniffed. If Chachamaru took any offense to Evangeline's statement she didn't show it. "If you do find her be sure to give her a slap from me. Not because of what she did but because of how unoriginal it was. If she's going to try and scare us she should stop relying on dime-a-dozen horror flicks for inspiration."

"Nobody's going to be slapping anyone, Master." Negi countered with a frown. "Speak for yourself." Asuna murmured but he ignored her. "This isn't the Budokai. I'm going to find Satomi-san, sit her down, and explain to her just how wrong her prank was. But I'm also going to listen to her if she needs someone to. That's my duty to her as her homeroom teacher."

Evangeline looked like she could barely keep from rolling her eyes. "Fine fine, bouya. But if you spare the rod you spoil the child. Remember that." She glanced up at the gynoid, "Chachamaru." She turned her back on them and continued down the steps, the robotic girl turning and following at her side with nary a backward glance or word of farewell.

"She can be such a brat sometimes, getting all bent out of shape because her club is being moved." Asuna grumbled.

"Vampires are creatures of habit." Setsuna remarked casually, looking after the pair as well before shrugging, the cloth-covered length of her blade rustling against her back. "Following the same routine for years and then suddenly having it disrupted would make anyone a little grouchy." She pursed her lips thoughtfully before she amended. "Grouchier."

Negi sighed. "Well let's get going. The faster we find Satomi-san and find out why she did this the better." He began moving down the steps again, turning the group towards the direction of the Science Building. He could hear Asuna and Konoka chattering behind him, Setsuna making the occasional comment or observation. Talk about classes, clubs, plans for the weekend.

He hoped Satomi could still talk about those things too.

* * *

"What a merry pack of fools."

Chachamaru continued looking ahead, listening to her master mutter to herself. Evangeline seemed to be in a particularly sour mood this afternoon, starting with the discovery of her Tea Ceremony's Club sudden move, but Chachamaru suspected that there was more to it than that though she had no logical reason to think so.

Therefore, she tried not to think it.

"Did you hear him, Chachamaru?" Evangeline did not look at her as she asked the question; instead, she had her eyes focused straight ahead down the walk path leading away from the school. The girl crossed her arms over her front and tilted her head back and murmured in a mocking tone, "'I'm going to sit her down and explain what she did and listen to her.' Who does he think he is, Dr. Phil?"

Chachamaru did not know who Dr. Phil was but she felt obligated to respond, "Yes, Mistress."

The vampiress gave a brief and quiet chuckle and then grew quiet. Chachamaru continued her journey in silence with her master. They rarely spoke, Evangeline of the mind that if you do not have anything interesting to say you should remain quiet, and the fact that Evangeline had been speaking as much as she had during their walk troubled the gynoid.

Many things today were troubling Chachamaru. Not the least of them was watching Satomi on that video, the images almost seemed too unreal to be real and she had felt more confusion than the horror or disgust of most of her classmates. Trying to reconcile the image of Satomi on the video, happily disemboweling herself, with the image she knew from school and the lab was nearly impossible for the algorithms and programs that powered her sentience.

The Satomi on the video shared no traits, besides appearance, with the Satomi of her daily life. Therefore, the Satomi on the video was a fake. Alternatively, that was what she hoped. Though she did not like it, there was the possibility that the video Satomi was indeed the one she knew. Anything was possible in the end, she realized, but her programming was to weigh things more by what was likely than what was possible.

"It's possible that you might be made Empress," Satomi once told her. 'But not very likely."

Reminiscing about her creator brought a sudden and unexpected wave of concern. Thinking back on their meeting with Negi she wished now that she had volunteered to join him in finding and confronting Satomi. Briefly she considered asking Evangeline if she may join them but they'd be at the Science Building by now. She found some comfort in the fact that Negi was seeking her creator out. If she were alright he'd talk to her and if she wasn't, he would do everything in his power to help her. She trusted his abilities.

When they passed by the edge of the campus town Chachamaru heard the ringing of a distant bell and she stopped. "Master, it's nearly time for me to feed my cats. May I do so?"

Evangeline paused, turning on her heel to face her Ministra Magi. She regarded her for a long time and Chachamaru was beginning to wonder if Evangeline was going to deny her when the vampiress finally answered. "Go ahead. But come home as soon as you're finished."

Chachamaru's brow furrowed curiously for a moment but she responded immediately. "Of course, Mistress." Evangeline nodded once and as she turned to continue her way home the gynoid looked after her departing master, wondering. She would have gone home immediately after she had finished, Evangeline should have known that. Why bring it up at all?

This routine helped put the automaton more at ease. There was the store she always picked her cat food up from. She paused to converse briefly with the clerk, another familiar face, and after making her farewells she was back outside and making her way down the sidewalk.

The sun was an orange-red ball hanging low in the blue sky but the rays were still strong, their heat radiating against her long green hair. She nodded to those she recognized as she walked down the path, offering small smiles to a few in particular. The gynoid was well known and well liked in this particular part of the campus, and the familiarity of the setting helped further put her mind at ease.

Somewhere up ahead there came a short high-pitched scream. The sound was so out of place and so sudden that Chachamaru drew to a halt, her battle systems switching to standby. Not far up the street a young boy came running out of an alley and onto the sidewalk.

His arms and legs were pumping furiously, a glimpse of his face as he ran past her showed a mask of stark terror writ upon the child's features. She half-turned to look after him, calling out once but he did not stop, did not even slow down. He never looked back as he ran down the sidewalk, other pedestrians pausing to watch him run past or quickly getting out of his way. Before long he had vanished from Chachamaru's sight entirely.

She looked ahead and towards the alley he had exited from and began to move towards it, her curiosity piqued. What had he seen that frightened him so much? She reached the mouth of the alley and looked into it from the sidewalk.

Nothing seemed amiss from what she could see. The alley was very ordinary as alleys go. There was a dumpster further down the way and a large cluster of garbage cans were huddled around the back door of a business past the dumpster. Nearer the entrance there was a large crate and a shattered bottle of Ramune soda on the ground beside it. The soda still glistened wetly on the asphalt, fresh. Nearby a manga lay on the ground, the pages folded beneath it as if it were simply tossed away.

She frowned curiously and peered further down the alley, trying to make out any lurking shadows or the hint of wild dog or other animal that may have frightened the child but she could see nothing. Yet…

There was something vaguely threatening about the alley despite its normal appearance. Chachamaru could not explain it but the shadows here seemed darker, the length of the alley seemed to stretch on further than it should have. She strained her hearing devices but she could hear nothing within. Nothing. There were no mice or rats scurrying in the garbage for morsels of food, no lazy yowls from the cats that would hunt them. Not even the buzz of insects was present.

It's coming.

The words from the video came to her unbidden and Chachamaru stepped away from the alley, suddenly not wanting to be anywhere near it. It was an irrational feeling and she felt embarrassed as soon as she had done it. A glance up and down the sidewalk showed everyone else going about their daily business, not showing any signs that they felt something was amiss.

Embarrassment still warming her features she turned away from the alley and continued on her way towards the courtyard where her cats made their home. The urge to peek over her shoulder towards the mouth of the alley was strong but she refused to indulge it. There was nothing there to be worried about.

She kept feeling the urge to look until she had turned the corner and it was out of sight.


	2. Faeries

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: After much procrastination I present to you the second chapter of this story. I'd like to offer thanks to Eva-chan, Konoka-chan, Yue-Yue and all the others from my RP group that helped me out with bits of information, ideas and critiques that I hope have made this a better story. Also apologies for any technical problems you may have experienced reading this.**

Faeries

Negi did not know why but silence overcame the group when the Science Building came into view.

Only moments ago, he and his students had been talking among themselves, the conversation pleasant and relaxed, as if nothing was amiss at all. Konoka discussed possible plans for dinner, with plenty of enthusiastic suggestions from Asuna and himself. He had asked Asuna if she needed any extra tutoring and had received one of her patented glares, but there was no real heat in the expression, her mouth twisting into a playful smirk before replying that she cannot give up her duties as Baka Red just yet. Asuna had begun asking Setsuna about new _kendo_ techniques when the building came into view through the trees and all desire for speaking seemed to have fled them.

The view was the same as the one shown in the strange video from earlier. The only readily visible difference being this was afternoon and the scene shown had been at night. The path led away from them, flanked on either side by the rods with chains drawn between them, winding its way up towards the building ahead.

Beside the path a neatly trimmed row of hedges. Negi looked at the bushes and wondered; if he pushed through them would he end up in a park in New York City?

"Negi-sensei." Konoka murmured from behind him.

Negi turned to look over his shoulder at his students. Konoka had shrunk closer to Asuna and Setsuna. The sword girl had taken up a position in front of Konoka as if by instinct, her posture seemingly relaxed but Negi could see the tension just below the surface, the girl's eyes were focused, fingers lightly curled against her hips. Asuna had moved behind Konoka, her long orange pigtails swirling about her as she looked from side to side.

The boy teacher offered a small smile to his students. "Come on everyone. Let's go find Satomi-san." Only Konoka tried to return his smile and almost succeeded. Turning back towards the looming building, he marched them up to the entrance and inside.

Inside the lobby, students and faculty went about their business in silence. Negi did not know what he was expecting but the appearance of normalcy seemed almost false to him considering what had happened in this building the pervious night.

What _may_ have happened. They still were not certain that what they saw on the video was true or not.

Then why did he keep thinking that it was?

He paused in the middle of the lobby, looking around for a moment before he saw the familiar hallway the camera had followed on the video. Without really knowing why, he began to walk towards it, his students following him silently. The hall was exactly as it was in the video. Negi suppressed a shiver as he pushed ahead and found the door leading to the stairwell exactly where it should be.

He reached towards the handle, paused, and then pushed the door open. Stepping into the dimly lit stairwell, he looked up the winding path of steps, trying to remember upon which floor the camera had exited the stairwell.

"The fourth floor." Setsuna said from behind him. Almost as if she knew what he'd been thinking. "It was the fourth floor, Negi-sensei."

He nodded. "Thank you, Setsuna-san." He began walking up the stairs, his eyes turned upwards as they rounded one landing and then another. Their footfalls sounded especially loud in the narrow confines, their soft breathing providing an undercurrent to the steady shuffling of shoes on concrete.

Reaching the landing for the fourth floor Negi pushed the door open without hesitation, pausing to recall which direction the camera turned before moving. The hallway was more well lit than it was in the video but still recognizable. Sunlight flooded in from windows at the far end of the hall, adding to and enhancing the overhead lights.

Walking down the hallway, Negi could not shake the strange feeling that he was actually watching the video again. He could feel a cool trickle of sweat at the nape of his neck and he resisted the urge to shiver here in front of his students. He had to be strong for them.

Eventually they came alongside the door he remembered (on the left side of the hall just as he remembered) and the group came to a halt. He reached out for the handle and suddenly paused, a sense of dread filling him.

This is where it had happened. This is where Satomi…

He frowned, his brow furrowing as he pushed the thoughts from his mind with a brief shake of his head. There was nothing to prove that anything happened to Satomi. That was why they were here. He glanced over his shoulder at the girls, looking from one young face to the next. Setsuna's face was still cool and calm but the tension from before was still there. Konoka's fear was not as easy to hide, the white mage unconsciously huddling closer to the sword girl. Asuna's eyes met his and she gave a firm nod.

"Excuse me."

Negi felt like jumping out of his shoes as the voice of a man suddenly intruded on the silence that had surrounded them. He heard Konoka gasp sharply as a young man with a white lab coat gingerly threaded his way through the group. Setsuna reached back towards the shape of Yuunagi before she realized there was no danger. Her hand dropped away from the _nodachi_ but she did not relax entirely.

The man stepped up to the door they had all gathered around, glancing once over his shoulder at the group and giving them an odd look before he pushed the door open and stepped out of the hallway. Negi almost flinched as the man stepped into the room so casually but as he looked past him, he saw…

Nothing.

The room was as it had been in the video of course but nothing seemed to be amiss. A pair of men in white lab coats was already working within the room, one hunched over the table Satomi had been working at and another sitting at one of the computer workstations that lined the wall. There was no grisly crime scene to to greet them. No Satomi either though.

Suddenly he felt foolish. A soft and nervous giggle from Konoka behind him further put his mind at ease.

"Jeez, Negi-bozu what were you getting all worked up about?" Asuna chided as she punched him lightly in the shoulder. "You're our homeroom teacher you know! You should really set a better example."

Negi turned back to Asuna his eyes wide and disbelieving. "W-what? But you were just as nervous as I was!" He accused, pointing a finger at her.

"Whatever, Negi-bozu!" Asuna smirked and crossed her arms over her front. "I was just playing along with you so you wouldn't feel so bad for being scared."

Negi grimaced but despite his displeasure at Asuna's teasing, he felt a relief that had not been there only moments before. He turned away from her and looked back through the open door and the bustling men inside. Silently he stepped forward and approached the closest man, the one leaning over the worktable. Staying a safe distance away Negi cleared his throat.

"Ah, excuse me. Sir?"

The man paused in his work and straightened, looking over the top of the table at Negi and his students. He offered a polite smile and lifted the safety goggles away from his eyes. "Yes? What can I help you with?" The man asked.

Negi explained that he was Satomi's homeroom teacher and her absence at class today but did not bring up the gruesome images from the video.

"Have you seen Satomi-san at all today, sir?" Negi looked hopefully at the man.

His hopes were dashed when the man shook his head once. "I'm afraid not. I haven't seen her since she was working in here last night." The man chuckled, "Last one out of the lab like always. When you find her let her know that she should turn off the equipment and lights the next time she goes to bed."

Negi frowned worry tickling his stomach. "Does she usually do that? Leave the lights and equipment on I mean."

The man shrugged. "Not usually but she's done it before. One time she left a plasma drill on and nearly burned down the lab in the process." He gave a sigh and shake of his head. "That girl… If only she had more common sense."

Negi tapped his fingers against the side of his leg as he thought. Satomi practically lived here in the Science Building, maybe she was laid up in her bed still?

"Where does Satomi usually stay?"

The man pointed upwards with his index finger. "About three floors up. There's a lab that she used so much that we finally moved a bed in for her. Better than the couches she was always using."

Negi nodded and thanked the man before he looked back to his students. "Well let's go pay her a visit. She's probably still laid up in bed." It made some sense. Negi himself had suffered sudden bouts of flu or a cold that hit him so hard that he had dropped everything and wandered off to curl up in a bed.

He left the lab but elected to use the elevator to reach their destination this time instead of marching up more stairs. As they made their way up, Konoka shuffled her feet quietly before she began to speak.

"Poor, Hakase-chan. She must've been feeling horrible if she went straight to bed like that."

"You're assuming she's sick, ojousama." Setsuna murmured quietly. "That man said she's done things like that before. She could be just trying to avoid having to fess up for what she did today. "

There was a soft ding announcing they had arrived and Negi stepped through the doors and out into the hall. He just now realized that the man had not specified where this lab exactly was and he flagged down a passing technician who pointed him in the right direction. Negi was thanking him when the lights in the ceiling flickered briefly.

Negi frowned up at them and the technician glanced up as well before he explained. "The whole building has been having electrical problems over the last couple of days. My men and I have been going over the wiring with a fine-tooth comb but we haven't been able to find any shorts or parasitic drains." The man grinned. "It's probably somebody's pet project creating a surge or two. If so we'll find it."

"Good luck!" Negi grinned at the man, waving before they set out again to find Satomi's lab/dorm room.

It didn't take long for them to find it. The room itself was rather messy and would have been unremarkable except for the fact that every surface seemed to be covered with books, papers or computers. Documents and books formed stacks that perched perilously on the edges of counters and the corners of tables. A clothes line had been drawn across the ceiling further back into the room and a large heavy curtain was hung upon it. The fabric was thick enough to hide whatever was beyond it from view, not even a silhouette of the furniture beyond was visible.

There was something else that Negi could not place at first, but after a few more moments he realized what was bothering him.

Except for the dull hum of monitors and the soft whirring of electronic fans the room was completely silent. Not the kind of silence that one normally finds in rooms like this but one that seemed to go deeper. The room, unlike the rest of the building, had a feeling of abandonment to it. Now that Negi thought about it, he had not seen many people in this part of the floor and despite all the equipment present, there was not a single person at work in this lab.

"Satomi-san?" Negi called out quietly, stepping further into the room, winding his way around the tables before he stopped a short distance away from the curtain. He tilted his head and strained to listen for breathing or the soft sounds of slumber but he could not hear anything. "Satomi-san? It's your teacher. Are you alright? We came to-"

Suddenly Negi felt himself being shoved aside from behind, curling orange pigtails swayed into his vision. "Jeez, Negi-bozu you're being way too nice. Just go up there and push the curtain aside!"

"But Asuna-san!" Negi protested, trying to keep his voice quiet. "W-What if she's… in her underwear?" He blushed brightly. "I'm her teacher and I can't just barge in on her like that."

Asuna rolled her eyes, "Well if you're that worried about seeing Satomi-san in her panties I guess I'll go ahead and do it." Before he could stop her, Asuna stomped up to the curtain, making a point to be as noisy as possible.

"Oi! Satomi-san! You've got some explaining to do!" She grabbed the curtain at the end farthest from Negi and pulled it open, staring past it and into Satomi's makeshift dorm room.

Negi winced, bracing himself for the inevitable yelp of surprise or the grunt of someone roused suddenly, and loudly, from their sleep. But neither of those things came.

He could not see beyond the curtain from his vantage point so he watched Asuna instead. With one hand still clutching the curtain and the other planted firmly on her hip, her head turned from left to right, surveying the space beyond. For a few moments nothing seemed amiss, she even began tapping one foot in annoyance.

"She's not even here Negi-bozu." Asuna grumbled. "Her bed's made though and-" Her voice seemed to catch in her throat. He saw the fingers clutching the curtain tighten their grip, her knuckles going white, and her entire body seemed to grow very still.

"Asuna-chan…?" Konoka spoke up from behind him. Worry added a slight tremor to her voice. "What's wrong?"

Asuna turned her head to look at them; her features were drawn and pale. Her blue and green eyes were wide but strangely she seemed to be looking right through them. "Negi…" Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Negi stepped forward immediately, his heart hammered in his chest but he suppressed his fear, joining Asuna's side and looking over the space beyond the curtain.

At first glance, he failed to see what had upset Asuna so much. Satomi was not present, that was certain, but there was nothing horrific that he could see. Numerous strange devices, which could only be some of Satomi's inventions, covered the counter against the far wall. Satomi's bed was set into a far corner, wedged between the end of the counter and the wall.

The bed was neatly made, the covers a soft robin egg blue, when he noticed the object curled up in the center of the bed.

At first Negi thought it was a small snake though he did not think something like that alone would make Asuna so frightened. But the more he looked at it, the more it seemed familiar to him somehow. He narrowed his eyes and then, with a cold stone of realization forming in his stomach, he knew what it was.

It was one of Satomi's braids.

It was coiled neatly on the blanket, the ends almost touching one another. One end shined moistly in the overhead light, the dark hair clotted with blood. Negi thought he saw a hint of scalp flesh dangling from the strands before he quickly looked away. Dizziness swept through his head as he did so and he gritted his teeth to keep from swaying where he stood. Regaining his composure Negi reached up to grasp at Asuna's hand, the one still clutching the curtain, and helped her guide the curtain back into place. When it had obstructed the bed and what lay upon it, he saw Asuna's eyes finally close.

"Negi-kun, Asuna-chan," Konoka spoke up again, her voice still trembling. "What is it? What did you see?"

Negi turned to look at the other girls. Konoka had her hands pressed together nervously over her chest. Setsuna remained silent by Konoka's side, her features grim.

"Setsuna-san? We need to get a hold of the building's security." Negi felt his own features beginning to harden. "Something's happened to Satomi-san."

* * *

Takahata placed the tape within the player and pressed rewind. He grabbed a nearby chair and drew it towards the middle of the room and sat himself down in it, facing the television and player that had been in Negi's class earlier that day. He recounted what Negi had told him about the video and though he thought Negi was telling the truth, another part of him thought what the boy had described was far too horrible to be true.

So that was why he was here, getting ready to watch this video and see if what Negi said was true. He heard the tape stop and reached out to start it up, leaning back into the chair he folded his arms loosely over his stomach.

"Let's see what upset you so much, Negi-kun." He spoke into the empty room, his voice only heard by other pieces of video equipment that lined the walls.

The video began normally just as Negi said it did. Takahata kept his eyes focused on the screen, trying to pick out anything the fledgling wizard may have missed. There was the city skyline at night. There was the Japanese tourist speaking to a street vendor then…

The picture quality suddenly dropped, the people on the screen became fuzzy and out of focus. He could hear their voices continuing but the audio seemed damaged as well, their voices slurred or dropping out altogether. Takahata frowned and leaned forward in the chair, his brow furrowing in curiosity. This was around the point Negi said that the video changed but there was no park or view of the Mahora Science Building like he had described.

The distortion continued for about two or three minutes and then, suddenly, the audio and video quality returned to normal. Takahata continued to frown; he unfolded his arms and planted his hands firmly on his knees. What was going on here?

He patiently sat and continued to watch the video until it came to an end. No more damaged spots. With a sigh he stopped the tape, rewound it, and started to watch it again. The beginning was normal, and then the small interval where the video appeared to be damaged, and finally it returned to normal quality until the very end.

Takahata stood up from the chair and ejected the tape. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the curved glass of the television monitor. His features were more puzzled than anything else, his brow knitted and a shadow of his frown still hovering over his mouth. He took the tape in his hand and lightly tapped it against hi thigh as he pondered what he knew so far: Negi had told him about the images on the video but all he had found was what appeared to be a space where the film was damaged somehow. Negi was too upset for Takahata to not believe that he'd seen something genuinely frightening and disturbing, the numerous students of his class that had gone to the nurse's office feeling ill seemed to indicate that they had seen something as well.

Hadn't Shizuna spoken with Satomi on the phone earlier this morning? Takahata turned to leave the A/V room, making his way back to the teachers' lounge where he found her sitting at one of the tables, tucking a sheaf of papers into a folder.

"Shizuna-san?"

She looked up from her work and smiled, "Takahata-san." She closed the folder and laid it down upon the table. Her head tilted just a little when she saw his expression. "Is there something you wanted to ask me?"

He nodded and stepped into the room. "When you talked to Satomi-kun this morning," He paused for a moment, wondering how to phrase it before he continued. "Did she sound like herself?"

"What do you mean?" Shizuna folded her hands together on the tabletop and leaned back in her chair.

"I'm not certain at the moment." He conceded, tapping the tape against his thigh again. "Did you notice anything unusual at all?"

Shizuna shrugged, "Well Satomi-san was calling in sick so she sounded a little congested. Sounded like she hadn't gotten much sleep either but it was definitely her voice." Shizuna frowned at him, "What's wrong, Takahata-san?"

Takahata shook his head once. "I'm not sure. It may be nothing but…" He offered his fellow teacher a smile, trying to show her a sense of ease that he did not feel. "I'm going to the Science Building and see if I can get a hold of Negi-kun. If he's found Satomi-kun we can speak to her together, if not, well I have something to tell him regardless." He nodded to Shizuna and thanked her before turning to leave, stepping out of the school building and out into the fading afternoon light.

"Negi-kun," He murmured to himself. "I hope you've found her."

* * *

"Found it!"

Haruna bustled about beneath the counter for a moment more before she emerged, clutching a stamp in one hand. "Okay, now which of you two decided the best place to store the check in stamp was in the deepest, dustiest corner?" She put her free hand on her hip and glanced from Nodoka to Yue and back again. Light briefly flashed off the lenses of her glasses, adding to the mirth that danced within her eyes.

"Don't look at me." Yue murmured, giving her friend and fellow librarian a brief glance. "What makes you think Nodoka-san or I would do anything like that?"

"I dunno. You two are here so you seemed like easy targets."

The conversation between Yue and Haruna seemed far away to Nodoka, her blue eyes focused on the task before her. She carefully inspected the recently returned books, checking them over for damage or missing pages. Her fingers ran slowly across the spine of the books as she turned them over in her hands, observing the front and back for any new marks or scuffs that warranted attention.

She was beginning to thumb through the pages when she sensed someone looming over her and she glanced up through her purple bangs. "W-What is it, Haruna-san?" She always felt a little nervous when her friend stood over her like that.

The librarian smiled, "You must've thought you were being pretty smooth in class today. Speaking up for Negi-sensei like that." She crossed her arms beneath her bosom, an act that once more brought to Nodoka's attention that Haruna was developing much more than either her or Yue.

Nodoka blushed brightly, "I-I wasn't being smooth! I was being honest. There's no way Negi-sensei would…" She gave a brief shudder and shook her head.

"Enough, Haruna-san." Yue spoke up, her voice still retaining its deadpan tone despite the firm stare she leveled at Haruna. "Nodoka-san doesn't have the stomach for creepy stuff like you do apparently."

Haruna turned to look at Yue, her mouth open in mock surprise. "Yuecchi!" Yue's brow furrowed just a touch at her friend's use of that particular nickname. "I was just congratulating Nodoka-san here on speaking up. I know she's done it before," She grinned and cast a sidelong glance at Nodoka, who blushed lightly, "But you don't often see her do it in front of the whole class like that."

Yue rolled her eyes briefly upwards before taking up a small juice box she had set aside and sipped from the straw. Nodoka saw that her friend was drinking cherry and radish today and tried her best not to make a face.

"I-It wasn't that special." Nodoka protested, turning her attention back to the book in her hands and continued her inspection though it was mostly for show. "I'm not the only one who defended him."

"No you weren't." Haruna conceded, twirling the check-in stamp in one hand she turned back to her task and began to stamp the small stack of books in front of her, setting them onto a nearby cart once she had finished. "But in my new manga 'Nodoka-san's Extra Credit' you do more than defend him. Wanna see the sketches I've got so far?" The bespectacled librarian leered at Nodoka, reaching under the counter to withdraw her sketchbook, holding it up dramatically. Nodoka could feel the light pink of her cheeks darkening a shade or twelve.

"Now give me your opinion, Nodoka-san." Haruna grinned as she slowly started to open the pages of her book. "Do you want to end up on the mats in the gym storage room? Or--"

A dull thwack interrupted Haruna's lewd question, the girl dropped her sketchbook to place her hands over the back of her head. Yue, meanwhile, calmly lowered the thick hardcover book she had just used to reign in her friend and stamped it before placing it on the cart. "Sometimes I forget just how much of a perv you can be, Haruna-san. Good thing you're always courteous enough to remind me."

Haruna made a small and pained sound before she opened one eye to look at her fellow librarians. "Hey! It's not my fault that you two haven't gone through puberty yet."

Nodoka blinked once and then gave Haruna the closest thing to a glower that she could muster, which she was told made her look like she was only slightly peeved. Yue did a much better job however and Haruna soon realized the peril in her position.

Haruna was moving before Nodoka and Yue could act and they were soon chasing the other girl in a circle around the cart of books. Haruna held up her hands, apologizing over and over again. Nodoka and Yue continued their pursuit for several moments before the girls began to grin.

Nodoka and Yue split and went around opposite sides of the cart at the same time and soon Haruna was pinned between the two and she gave a brief squeal followed by laughter as the girls began to furiously tickle their friend. Nodoka giggled and even Yue chuckled softly as they attacked Haruna's sides.

"O-Okay! Okay! I surrender!" Haruna gasped. She clutched the edge of the cart, bent over it and laughing quietly as the other two backed off.

Nodoka smiled and took a moment to catch her breath before she gripped the handlebar of the cart. "Okay Haruna-san, Yue-Yue, let's get these put up." Haruna nodded, still laughing as she wiped tears away from her eyes. Yue nodded and took up her juice box for one last drink before tossing the empty container into the garbage.

The girls slipped away from the check-in counter, Nodoka pushing the cart with Haruna and Yue walking on either side of it. Together the young librarians ventured into the literal miles of book shelves that could be found on Library Island. Nodoka turned the cart down one aisle and they began the process of returning the books to their places.

Their routine was simple: Nodoka would retrieve a book from the cart and, depending on the author's name, hand it to either Yue or Haruna. Haruna handled the higher shelves, hijacking one of the many stepladders that filled the aisles and pushing it along the rollers while Yue, being the shortest of the three, seemed more suited for handling the lower shelves.

They were more than halfway done with the cartload when Nodoka saw the lights flickering down the aisle.

The lights dimmed, brightened and then dimmed once more before resuming their normal level of luminescence. It began far ahead but swiftly made its way towards them. All of them paused briefly to watch this rolling electrical malfunction, their eyes casting upwards as it passed around them and then continued away from them until it passed beyond their sight.

"What was that?" Haruna asked. Her head was still turned in the direction they had come, looking after the direction of the lights. "Did our power plant short out or something?"

"If it was I think all the lights would've flickered at once." Nodoka murmured quietly. She suddenly felt uneasy, her light mood evaporating in the wake of the lights.

They continued on silently, the phenomenon seeming to have been forgotten by her friends but Nodoka's sense of unease grew. She was not sure what it was but she could feel her heart beating a little faster, the wheels of the stepladder were oiled but they still managed to shriek and squeal to her ears. Their steps resounded like thunder through the quiet of the library.

What was wrong with her?

Nodoka tried to focus on her task, grabbing books and handing them to Yue and Haruna. She was just going through the motions though, her eyes downcast towards the books but not really seeing them.

"Nodoka-san? Are you alright?" Nodoka blinked once and looked up at Yue. The girl had a worried frown on her face, and she was still holding the book Nodoka had given her. Getting a closer look she saw that it was one that belonged on the higher shelves.

"Oh! Sorry, Yue-Yue…" She murmured as she took the book from her and turned to give it to Haruna. Nodoka couldn't help but blush a little when she saw that even Haruna looked subdued.

"You don't look too good, Nodoka. Are you still that upset about…earlier?" The fact that Haruna was showing more tact than usual showed how concerned she was.

"Oh! No. I-I'm alright. Honest." She smiled. "I'm just feeling a little tired is all. I'll try to get to bed early tonight."

Her friends did not look wholly convinced but they nodded and they continued their task. After a few minutes Nodoka was feeling a little better, and when Haruna made a pun about the author of a book she had just put up Nodoka even laughed a little. They had turned into the last aisle when Nodoka reached for one of the few books left in the cart and froze.

The book lay in the cart with its front cover up. The title was simple: "Faeries." The book was by a Western author and it had an elaborate illustration worked into the title. Small humanoid creatures crouched and hid among the letters, wearing mushroom caps or acorns as hats and wielding small wands tipped with pine cones or thistles. While most grinned impishly from their hiding places, one of them was in plain view, leaping from the uppermost bar of the "F" with gossamer wings spread from its back and long golden locks streaming behind an elfish and feminine face that wore an expression of open-mouthed delight.

Nodoka didn't know why but the figures made her feel frightened again. No, they made her feel more frightened than anything else she had experienced that day.

To her the figures did not look whimsical and magical. They looked threatening. The grins were not playful to her. Instead they seemed feral. Vicious. Wicked-looking teeth filled their mouths, the ends appearing to grow more pointed the longer she watched. The wands they held looked more like brutish spears or clubs, poised to attack anyone hapless enough to come across their path. And their eyes…

She had the strangest sensation that she was being watched. By them.

The expression on the leaping faerie's face no longer seemed like one of delight but of a wild and deranged fury. Lips skinned back from teeth ready to tear into flesh, the spread arms ready to grasp and then squeeze the life out of the object of their wrath. And the visible eye of that faerie seemed to be looking straight into Nodoka's own eyes.

"Nodoka-san!" A hand clutched at her shoulder.

Nodoka screamed suddenly, the sound as much a surprise to her as it was her friends. It was short, loud and frightened. Her friends jumped at the sound, Yue releasing her grip and taking a small step away from her while Haruna swung nimbly down from the step ladder and moved towards them.

Nodoka looked from Yue to Haruna, her blue eyes wide and shimmering. "I…" She murmured before she swallowed once. "I'm sorry." Her voice cracked at the last syllable and one tear escaped the corner of an eye, tracing a path down cheeks pale with terror. "I'm sorry, Yue-Yue… Haruna-sempai." She sobbed once and collapsed against Yue, her arms loose around the girl's shoulders.

Nodoka could feel the arms of her friends curling around her, whispered words of comfort as they stroked her trembling form. Through the curtain of her tears Nodoka could make out the cover of the book from the corner of her eye. She quickly looked away, her arms tightening around Yue as she sobbed again.

But despite the closeness of her friends, the warmth of their comforting embrace, she could still feel the eyes of the faeries upon her.


	3. Mysterious!

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: First of all I would like to apologize for the long delay between updates. Writer's block, real life, procrastination and plain old laziness had a lot to do with it. **

**Second of all I've changed the story's rating to T, for now, seeing as other stories with the same rating have a lot more blood and cursing than this one has had so far. But the rating probably will change back to M when the ball really starts rolling.**

**I'm already getting to work on the next chapter. In fact this one was going to be even longer but I decided it would be best to splice this off and post it as its own chapter. Hope you enjoy! **

Mysterious!

The dorm room for the high school girls didn't look much different from what she had already. If anything, the room seemed smaller but perhaps that was because there were three older girls standing around Kazumi, their eyes fixed on her as they waited. The two closest to her almost seemed to be on the verge of pushing her out of their room with the sheer cattiness of their glares. The third hung back away from the others, her features a mosaic of embarrassment and fear.

Kazumi met it all with a confident smile, one hand planted on her hip while the other hung loose at her side, a carrying case for her digital camera dangling from her fingers. "From the looks of you two I'd say you're not as interested in checking for ghosts in your room as your room mate there?"

One of the glaring girls snorted. "You've got that right. She's just a scaredy cat." She turned her eyes over her shoulder at the one that stood in the back, as if to further emphasize who the scaredy cat actually was.

The other glarer nodded in confirmation and smirked at Kazumi. "Only Wazuka would still be enough of a baby to worry about things like that. Sometimes I wonder if she wouldn't be better off with the rest of the babies in middle-school." The girl paused and tilted her head to one side as if suddenly recalling something. "Oh aren't you a middle-schooler too?" She grinned. "So why don't you get out of our room and get back into the playpen, hmmm?"

Kazumi remained where she stood, her smile never faltering. Though truth be told things weren't going according to her plan.

A few weeks ago Kazumi had placed an advertisement on bulletin boards around campus and on the campus web page soliciting her talents as a finder and banisher of spirits and would be willing to lend her abilities.

When contacted she would meet with the client, determine why they may feel they're being haunted, and then go about banishing the offending spirit. Usually by performing some ritual, she makes up on the spot. So far, Kazumi had banished spirits using methods ranging from murmuring old limericks she learned form an uncle and convincing her client they were spells from an ancient shrine and by shaking a "holy" doll, she had picked up in a UFO catcher earlier that day.

Generally Kazumi performed these feats of exorcism with an air of quiet humility and charged no fee though she would make an aside that small "donations" were humbly accepted. This had backfired a couple of times but more often than not the people who had contacted her had been grateful enough to donate.

Of course to lend an air of credence to what she did, at least in her own mind, Kazumi had the help of her ethereal friend and companion: Sayo Aisaka.

At first Sayo had been reluctant to join Kazumi on her venture but the _paparazzo_had explained, in her own special way, that they would actually be helping people to overcome their fears and would be giving them a measure of peace. Also Sayo would be able to tell if there actually was a ghost haunting them and relay the information to Kazumi who would then inform the client that their situation was beyond her abilities.

Wazuka, the girl shrinking behind the other two, was her latest client. Sayo had confirmed that there was no genuine spirit nearby and Kazumi was about to begin her "exorcism" when the girl's room mates had arrived and started giving her and her client a hard time. She was ready to chalk it up to a loss but seeing them berate the girl so much made her wonder if perhaps these two were the real source of her fears.

The fact that they kept insulting Kazumi as well only made her want to stick around and see this to the end even if it was just to spite the two she-ogres.

Suddenly Kazumi blinked and her smile grew broader by just a touch. She had an idea. Glancing surreptitiously around the room she found her friend hovering close to Wazuka, the ghost's red eyes filled with compassion. The genuine concern the spirit showed for the girl made Kazumi feel a twinge of guilt over the idea of actually taking money from her had she offered it. Donation or not.

Kazumi cleared her throat, an exaggerated sound that drew the attention of everyone in the dorm room to her, including Sayo. "So Wazuka's a baby for believing in spirits? Maybe she just has more sense than the two of you put together." She smirked and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. She noted with some satisfaction that the gesture showed the girl that had been giving her such a hard time that the middle-school "baby" was more developed than she was.

"Like hell," The girl that had been glaring at Wazuka snorted. Kazumi was beginning to think of her as Ms. Ogre. "If you believe in ghosts not only are you a baby but you're an idiot. There's no such thing." The certainty with which she said this made Kazumi laugh brightly, her eyes shining with amusement. Especially considering that Sayo was hovering only feet away from the girl, the ghost's cheeks puffed a little in indignation in a rare show of peevishness from her usually meek friend.

"What's so funny, baby?" The other girl spoke up. Kazumi decided to dub her Ms. Board in honor of her figure.

"Just that there's a ghost right here in this very room that's all." Kazumi answered nonchalantly. She could hear an audible squeak from Wazuka. "And if you keep insulting it like this who knows what it might do, right?" She looked at the pair of girls, their expressions still skeptical, but her eyes went past them and focused on Sayo. Kazumi arched her eyebrows ever so slightly, hoping that her friend would pick up on the suggestion.

Sayo blinked at Kazumi a couple of times and then a pale blush colored her cheeks. "K-Kazumi… I don't know if I want to do anything to these two." She then leaned forward and cupped her hand to her mouth to murmur in a conspiratorial whisper as if worried that the girls in question might actually be able to hear her. "They might beat me up!"

Kazumi tried not to let her frustration show. Instead she ground her teeth together in her mouth in a valiant effort to keep her smile in place. "And if a ghost gets riled up there's nothing any of you would be able to do to stop it." She kept her tone as patient as possible, eyes flicking away from Sayo to the other living souls within the room. "So why don't you let me perform my ritual and then Wazuka can be happy and you two can be happy?"

Ms. Ogre grinned, a humorless and cruel expression. "Wazuka's not going to be happy for a long time." She took a step towards Kazumi, trying to physically crowd her back towards the door now. "And neither will you. So why don't you leave now and let us take care of our room mate?"

Kazumi grimaced a little, taking a step back to keep some distance between her and Ms. Ogre. "What are you going to do to Wazuka...?" The reporter girl's eyes flicked towards the girl in question. Wazuka was looking at her feet, hands folded tightly over her stomach. Even from here, Kazumi could see tears beginning to form in the corner of the girl's eyes.

"The same thing we're going to do to you if you don't get out of our room right now, baby." Ms. Board stepped forward to join Ms. Ogre. Before Kazumi knew it, the girl had reached out and given her a firm shove on the shoulder to emphasize her point.

Kazumi grimaced, her veneer of good nature rapidly worn thin by the pair of obnoxious high school girls. The _paparazzo_was beginning to open her mouth to voice some insults of her own when she saw Sayo over the shoulders of the girls before her. The ghost had her hands clenched in fists in front of her, an almost childish expression of anger. As Kazumi watched, a pair of flickering _hitodama_ appeared to either side of her ghostly friend. The balls of ethereal flame were no bigger than her fist and here a strange purplish-blue color, the _hitodama_hovered around Sayo and pulsed with a seeming life (or unlife in this case) of their own. Kazumi couldn't help but smile again.

Sayo never manifested the balls of flame unless she was beginning to exert some serious poltergeist activity.

Kazumi threw up her hands in a kind of Now-You've-Done-It gesture. "Great, the spirit is very upset now. I tried to warn you two." She sighed and pressed one hand against her forehead, shaking her head wearily.

"I told you we don't believe in-" Ms. Ogre began but a sudden gust of cold wind whipped through the room with enough force to bite through their uniforms and caress the flesh beneath. Ms. Ogre's words died in her mouth with a sudden gasp. Ms. Board wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the sudden chill. Wazuka, meanwhile, shrank into a corner, her eyes going wide and her hands clasped tightly over her mouth.

"What's going on he-" Ms. Board's question ended in a squeak as she hurriedly clutched at her skirt to keep it from flying up too high from an especially strong breeze. Suddenly, a number of stuffed animals hurtled from their place on the nearby bunk beds and began to pelt Ms. Ogre and Ms. Board. An especially large grinning cat-like plushie thudded loudly against the former's face when she turned to see who was hurling the toys.

The closet doors began to open and close, sending Wazuka scurrying away from them with a short shriek of fright. Kazumi stepped forward, raising a hand to shield her face from the constant wind and actually had to duck to avoid a soaring Hello Kitty figure. Perhaps it was time to tell Sayo to ease back on the angry ghost act.

"I can see it!" Kazumi called suddenly, moving to unzip the camera case she held in one hand, retrieving the slim digital camera from within. Ms. Ogre and Ms. Board nearly jumped out of their socks, running to join Wazuka to one side of the room, the three of them looking toward Kazumi with wide and wondering eyes. "I'll use my mystical camera to take a picture!" She waved one hand over her head to try and get her ghostly friend's attention, using the pretense of trying to push away a small pillow that hadn't come anywhere near her.

Sayo continued her mayhem for several more seconds, her cheeks puffed comically and her clenched fists jerking every so often in time with a thrown toy or the slamming of a door. When she heard Kazumi's voice it's almost like a switch was thrown and she blinks once. The stuffed animals and pillows fall to the floor in mid-flight, the closet doors stop swinging and the wind begins to slow but doesn't wholly disappear. Brief eddies and whirls continued to rustle the clothes of the girls scattered through the room but it had lost the chill force it had only moments ago.

"It looks real scary!" Kazumi declared, raising the camera up to her face and centering Sayo within the frame. Sayo blinked once and a small blush crept across her pale cheeks before she began her transformation.

Sayo's transformation wasn't a true one per se, but more like an illusion, she used to alter her appearance into a more traditional creepy ghost. She had perfected it during the Festival for her homeroom's haunted house exhibit and, though she really wouldn't admit it to anyone, she was very proud of the scares the form had generated.

The ghost girl's eyes were overtaken by shadows, pinpoints of light flickered eerily within the depths. Her decades old uniform, already different enough from Kazumi's and the high school girls', became darker, the winter colors emphasized even more to give them an almost funereal quality. The _hitodama_ took on an even creepier shape, appearing almost like a sickly version of a flame.

Kazumi grinned at Sayo; her back turned to the cowering high school girls hiding her expression. There was a whir and a brief flash and the picture was taken. Sayo immediately reverted to her normal appearance afterwards with a quiet sigh. Kazumi lowered the camera and flipped open the viewing panel, flipping through taken pictures until she found the shot of Sayo.

"Here she is." Kazumi intoned her expression grave once more when she turned to approach the high school girls. She extended the camera and showed them the picture of Sayo. The effect was instantaneous.

Ms. Ogre paled considerably, her head shook slowly from side to side as if trying to deny what was before her very eyes. Ms. Board looked to be on the verge of fainting, swaying where she stood and leaning against Ms. Ogre for support. Surprisingly, Wazuka had the calmest reaction. She still appeared frightened but she also looked almost sympathetic for Sayo. Kazumi chalked her reaction up to the fact that she already believed there was a ghost present and was merely having her suspicions confirmed. Her two roommates, on the other hand, were having their ideas concerning the supernatural redefined.

"You've got to do something!" Ms. Ogre reached out and grabbed Kazumi by the shoulders, giving her a panicky little shake. Her eyes were wide with fright, her voice high and pleading. It took a great deal of effort for Kazumi to keep from smirking back at the girl. Moments ago, she was ready to kick her out of her room and now she was begging for her help.

Kazumi disengaged herself from Ms. Ogre's grasp, raising her hands up before her in a placating gesture. "Now now," She began. "This camera is very special." She gave it a little twist for emphasis. "Do you know those games where a girl could exorcise spirits with a camera? That's based on me. I have an uncle that works for the development company." She turned her back to the girls, raising the camera to her eyes once more. "With this special camera I can exorcise the spirit and send her packing. Oh! She's scared already."

Sayo blinked once and then nodded. She struck what she hoped was a frightened pose. Her eyes widened and she raised her hands in front of her almost as if to ward off something, she opened her mouth as if crying out in fear. Kazumi gave a subtle nod, snapped the picture, and then took a couple of steps towards Sayo. "She's leaving! Just a few more shots!"

Sayo turned away and began to float, she didn't have feet, out of the room, her arms stretched out over her head in an expression of fear that struck Kazumi as almost cartoonish, but there wasn't any way for her to tell Sayo to tone it down without drawing any kind of suspicion from the girls behind her.

Kazumi kept snapping shots as she moved forward until her friend had fled completely from the dorm room. She was particularly pleased with the last shot, which actually managed to capture Sayo, as she was half in, and half out of the wall. With a heavy sigh, as if the actions had taken a lot of effort, Kazumi lowered the camera and turned back towards the girls. "She's gone. I managed to drive her away." She approached them again and showed them the sequence of shots, beginning with Sayo's fright and then her escape from the room. Thankfully, the girls seemed too impressed to notice her ghostly friend's hammy performance.

Ms. Ogre and Ms. Board sighed in relief, leaning against each other. Wazuka, however, gave Kazumi a pensive look, her hands clasped in front of her. "Did…did it hurt, her? The exorcism that is." Ms. Ogre gave a derisive snort and fixed the kind girl with a disbelieving stare. "Who cares? After all the problems she caused I hope it did."

Kazumi looked back at her for a long moment, surprised and a little touched with Wazuka's concern for a ghost that she had been in fear of and then a wearying anger for the quickness in which Ms. Ogre's cruel nature had returned. She sensed a presence behind her and resisted the urge to glance over her shoulder to confirm that Sayo had returned to the room.

"Kazumi…" Sayo murmured resignation and frustration shadowing her voice. "Nothing's really changed. They're still going to torment that girl."

Kazumi felt her jaw tighten when she realized the truth in Sayo's words. Suddenly, the idea of fleecing a few yen off the girls didn't seem so enticing anymore. She felt the gears turning in her head and then she knew what she had to do.

She looked at Ms. Ogre and stated, "You should care. You and your friend here," She indicated Ms. Board with one hand. "You two were the main reasons this ghost was causing problems in the fist place."

Ms. Ogre looked at her incredulously. "What do you mean? Wazuka's the one who complained about the ghost not us." Ms. Board nodded in agreement, hands planted firmly on her hips.

"That's because the ghost wanted to protect Wazuka." Kazumi looked to the girl in question. "You said you felt its presence but you never felt threatened or anything did you?"

Wazuka blinked once and looked down at her feet for a long moment before she turned her eyes back to Kazumi and shook her head. "No. I just felt like something was hanging around."

Kazumi nodded once and turned back towards the other girls. "Because you're so mean to Wazuka here that ghost came to protect her from you two." She put her free hand on her hip, the other hand still held the camera casually from its strap. "If you two treated her with more respect and kindness you wouldn't attract such a protective spirit." She smiled just a little. "I've driven it off for now but if you keep treating Wazuka like you have been she'll be back and even angrier than before."

Ms. Ogre and Ms. Board suddenly appeared very frightened. They looked from Kazumi towards Wazuka and actually managed to look contrite. However, Ms. Board seemed a bit more sincere about it than Ms. Ogre's did.

"Sorry, Wazuka." Ms. Ogre muttered, her eyes fixed on the floor and not meeting the other girl's eyes.

"Yeah. I-I'm sorry too, Wazuka." Ms. Board actually managed to meet Wazuka's gaze as she murmured her apology, her expression showing what appeared to be genuine regret, much to Kazumi's surprise.

Wazuka looked from Ms. Ogre to Ms. Board and back, a small and shy smile spreading on her face. "Oh, ah, it's okay. Please don't worry about it. Hisa. Kin." Finally, the terrible twosome had names.

Kazumi looked on for a moment more before she made a show of tucking the camera back into its case. "Well, my job here is done. But if there are any more problems don't hesitate to let me know." She began to turn as if to leave but paused and turned back to the girls. "Though I hate to ask," She did her best to put on a small and humble smile. No mean feat for a girl like Kazumi. "If you would be so kind as to make a donation?" She continued quickly, "It would help me upgrade my spiritual camera and could make things much easier for me to help you in the future if things were to happen again."

Ms. Ogre a.k.a. Hisa, almost looked like she was on the verge of slipping back into obnoxious and angry mode again but when Kazumi gave her camera bag a brief little twirl with its strap she swallowed any objection she may have felt and reached into her blazer pocket to withdraw a small billfold. Ms. Board a.k.a. Kin did the same but with less reluctance than Hisa.

When Wazuka moved to make a 'donation' as well Kazumi started to refuse but the girl spoke up insistently. "We're all roommates here. We'll do things together. Not one should sacrifice when another doesn't." Kazumi blinked once and then simply nodded. The other two girls looked surprised but also appreciative. Even Hisa seemed to show a warmth that had been absent ever since she'd been in Kazumi's presence.

As Kazumi collected her donation from the girls, she thanked them and left the dorm room, the girls in quiet conversation as she did so. Kazumi tucked the money away into a pouch on the belt of her skirt, the donation was a little smaller than usual but she found that she didn't really mind considering the circumstances. Sayo followed closely on her heels, gliding up to move along her friend's side.

"Well…that could've ended a lot worse than it did." Kazumi mused. She glanced aside to Sayo and gave her friend a little smile, "See? We were able to help Wazuka out a little bit did we not? Those girls will probably stop picking on her now."

"I hope so." Sayo murmured. "Or I really will come back to haunt them some more."

Kazumi couldn't help but grin just a little. "You've gotten more assertive lately, Sayo." They stepped out of the dorm and onto the sidewalk, Kazumi angling them away and towards the closest shopping district. Sayo blushed just a little at Kazumi's observation. "I-Is that good?" She asked.

Kazumi just laughed and approached a kiosk, ordered a small tea and picked up one of the tabloids on display. The tabloid in question, _Shocking! Mysterious! Outrageous!_, was one of Kazumi's favorites, exploring strange stories from all over the globe with an emphasis on the bizarre, the scandalous and what some people called "human interest."

Kazumi took a seat at one of the small outdoor tables scattered in this part of the district and spread the paper out in front of her, taking a sip of her tea while she read over the features. The front-page features were equal parts flashy and trashy, about what you'd come to expect from a publication like this, but the real item of interests for here were the stories buried within.

An autumn wind whipped around the _paparazzo_, tousling her tightly bound red hair and making her briefly narrow her eyes against the gust. The air was just beginning to lose the heady heat of summer, the milder temperatures of autumn beginning to take its place. Kazumi pinned down one corner of the paper with her camera case to keep the mischievous wind from blowing the paper shut and proceeded to look over the stories within.

It was the usual mixture of stupid criminals, bizarre accidents, and tragicomic events with a smattering of the unknown to round things out. Kazumi felt more than saw Sayo leaning forward over her shoulder to read the paper alongside her. It had taken her a long time to keep from constantly glancing over her shoulder at Sayo when she sensed her presence. Now it had become so familiar to her she would glance if she didn't feel someone looking over her shoulder.

"I don't understand," Sayo murmured and extended one pale finger to indicate one of the stories. "It said this woman died from drinking a gallon of water for a contest. How could that kill you? Don't doctors say you're supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day or something?"

"I don't think you're supposed to drink it all at once." Kazumi answered with a soft chuckle. A woman passing by the table glanced curiously at her but kept walking. The girl offered a nonchalant smile to meet her look before turning her attention back to the paper. Though she had gotten better at answering Sayo's questions in public in a way that didn't draw much attention she still managed to attract the occasional look, but Kazumi felt no shame or embarrassment either way. She wouldn't feel ashamed for talking to her friend.

Sayo didn't comment on any of the other stories and Kazumi gave them a brief but intensive once over. The only stories that seemed to stand out to Kazumi was one about a series of thefts in a museum in the Middle East and one concerning bizarre energy phenomenon observed by a weather satellite. Both of the stories were rather scant on details however, a fact that maddened Kazumi, and she decided to see if she could look up more information about them online when she got back to-

Kazumi's eyes widened and she sat up straight, glancing at her watch. "Damn," She muttered and finished her tea before gathering up her camera and the paper, folding the latter underneath one arm. The "exorcism" at Wazuka's had taken longer than she had thought and she was running behind on her schedule.

Sayo blinked once before she blushed with realization. "Oh! Sorry, Kazumi… I forgot." She smiled shyly.

Kazumi waved away her apology with a grin, "Don't worry about it. I forgot too." She began to head off towards the nearest trolley station at a brisk walk that turned into a jog when she saw the car up ahead beginning to pull away from the stop. The tram's slow speed in pulling away was the only thing that allowed her to catch up, using her free hand to clutch a pole in back she swung herself up into the rear entrance with a grace that was marred only by her nearly losing the paper tucked against her side. She clumsily grabbed at the sheaf of papers before clutching them to her chest.

It took her a few moments to catch her breath and a small hitch in her side made her wince. She'd been slacking off in gym lately and it looks like it was starting to catch up with her. Sayo hovered nearby, beyond the guardrail that stretched across the back of the car. Kazumi eyed her ghostly friend and felt a brief surge of envy at how easily she seemed to be able to keep up with the car. Sayo seemed to notice and blinked once before she blushed and offered Kazumi a playful, if bashful, grin.

The _paparazzo _leaned against the guardrail with a sigh, the air whipping around her as she looked around at the passing storefronts and buildings of the city that made up Mahora Academy. The city was a strange but pleasing mixture of architecture styles of all kinds from East and West, modern and classical, utilitarian and artistic. And it was this long and interesting architectural history that was the cause of this additional detour before making it back to her dorm room.

Kazumi was currently assigned to do a series of pieces for the campus paper. The series was called "The Faces of Mahora Over Time," a rather interesting title Kazumi thought to herself, especially considering the business that happened over the course of the Festival. The piece was dedicated to gathering a visual history of Mahora's history by taking pictures of various school buildings scattered about the campus. Though many had fallen over history due to disrepair and war, many more were still standing in various states of preservation. He current assignment was to take some pictures of an clock tower that was in use during the early 1900s.

Kazumi was still looking out the back of the tram when she heard the horn begin to sound. She didn't think much of it at first but then the tram began to slow and she could hear murmurs from other passengers towards the front of the vehicle and eventually it braked to a full stop. Frowning Kazumi approached the edge of the rear platform and leaned to one side, ignoring the safety signs that warned against sticking your limbs or head around the edges of the tram while it was in motion.

"What is it, Kazumi?" Sayo asked as she moved to hover alongside the vehicle, her red eyes wide and curious as she looked towards the front.

"I don't know. Maybe some dog won't get out of the way or something." The horn on the tram sounded a couple of more times and Kazumi thought that maybe she was right until she saw a police officer hurry off of the sidewalk and disappear around the front of the tram. She could hear him speaking but couldn't quite make out what he was saying. She heard his voice again, a little louder and an authoritative edge creeping in along the edges.

A moment later the police officer reappeared but he wasn't alone. He was guiding what appeared to be a salary man. He was wearing a nondescript suit jacket and tie, though the jacket was unbutton and flapped around the man as he was pushed along but it wasn't his clothing that made him stand out. It was the expression on his face.

Even from this distance the man's eyes looked like saucers in his face, bulging so much that they almost looked to Kazumi as if they were going to burst. The man's lips were pulled back enough to show all of his teeth in a wide and fierce grin that had little to do with mirth. Despite his manic expression there seemed to be an unnatural stillness to him, his legs moving in a herky jerky fashion that reminded her of a marionette. The police officer was behind him, one hand on the man's shoulder guiding him out of the path of the tram, his other hand hovered over his _tonfa_ as if he were ready to use it at a moment's notice.

There was something about the man that made Kazumi feel queasy, and her hands tightened on the railing. The man's wild eyes caught her looking and he raised one arm and pointed at her, his finger curled wickedly as if in accusation. His mouth opened wide but no sound emerged, his teeth framing a mouth that looked cavernous and inhuman. The motion was so sudden that it made Kazumi jump almost as much as the police officer. He reached out to grasp the man's arm and pull it back down, putting a bit more force in pushing the man towards the sidewalk.

Kazumi hurriedly ducked back out of sight and leaned against the back of the tram, her eyes closing for a moment as she tried to calm her suddenly racing heart. She felt the tram begin to move again and the breeze that tickled her face helped to push away the feeling of unease. Sayo's presence made her open her eyes again, meeting the ghost girl's concerned gaze. She offered her a smile that showed more confidence than she felt.

"Are you okay, Kazumi?" She asked quietly. The _paparazzo _nodded and pushed herself away from the wall. "Yeah, Sayo. Don't worry." She gave a brief shrug. "He probably got laid off or something. Or maybe he drank too many energy drinks." She grinned but even to her the jibe seemed rather weak and Sayo still watched her with worried eyes.

Though the shock from the grinning salary man was beginning to fade something about it had brought back images of the video she had seen in class earlier today. She frowned to herself and curled one arm over her front as the unwelcome memory returned to her. She had managed to mostly block it out, chalking it up to some macabre joke pulled by Satomi. It seemed a little out of character for the scientist girl but considering that one of her classmates had been a time-traveling future descendant of her home room teacher she figured that she probably didn't know everybody as well as she thought she did.

They had left the shopping centers behind and the buildings where spaced further apart, trees and benches helped fill the emptiness and it wasn't long before she felt the tram beginning to slow again. She took a breath and readied to depart from the vehicle, knowing from the terrain that she had reached her destination.

She could see the clock tower as soon as she stepped off the tram. Its peak was visible over the top of the tree line and she made her way towards it, taking her time on the winding footpath that cut through the trees. Birds were still in abundance, their song and those of summer insects provided a relaxing concert for the pair. Sayo floated a little ahead of her, ghostly face turned upwards as she kept the tower in her line of sight. Kazumi tilted her head curiously, "Familiar, Sayo?"

She nodded and glanced over her shoulder at Kazumi, her face a picture of nostalgia, as if recalling pleasant memories of a time long since gone. "Yes. Though I don't remember a lot of details from when I was alive, I do remember this tower for some reason." She looked back towards it, raising one hand to shade her eyes against the rays of the sun, which were just beginning to fade from yellow to orange and red. "It makes me happy."

Kazumi smiled, "That's good. I like seeing you happy, Sayo." The ghost girl tensed her shoulders just a little and Kazumi didn't have to see to know that she was blushing. She grinned to herself. Sayo was so cute when she was flustered like that.

They arrived in a small clearing and the tower stood within the center. The building was in a Western style; Kazumi wasn't sure exactly which kind, with the clock tower sprouting from one corner of a small and squat structure. The tower had contrasting bands of blank walls and then high arched windows that went all the way up to a conical top. The clock face was set just beneath the top of the tower; the numbers were Roman numerals instead of Arabic. While the building seemed to be in generally good shape, with only a thick curtain of vines stretching across the roof of the structure and part of one wall of the tower, the clock seemed to have stopped functioning. The hands of the clock locked in position over XII. Would that mean it stopped at midnight? Or noon? Some of the windows in the ground floor structure were broken; Kazumi figured the windows in the tower were still intact because they were too high to strike easily with the missiles of vandals.

She paused at the edge of the clearing and removed her camera from the carrying case once more, setting the paper down on the ground in the process, and gave it a moment to warm up as she looked around. The space around the building seemed very sparse and it took her a moment to notice the foundations of what must've been another structure of some kind. "Do you remember anything else about this building, Sayo? Like why you enjoyed it so much?"

Sayo's brow knitted as she thought to herself, the ghost floating briefly around the space in front of Kazumi, looking at the building and then around it. "I think I remember some other things being around here. There were swings and a seesaw and…a slide." She blushed a little and turned back to Kazumi, smiling. "There used to be a playground here but it looks like they moved it."

Kazumi grinned, raising the camera and focusing her shot on the building, trying to get a wide shot before she got closer for pictures that are more detailed. "So this is where you hung out and played. No wonder it brings back good memories." She took a few steps to one side to better center the structure in her frame and took a few shots. She lowered the camera and began to approach it, head tilted up to look at the tower.

Sayo huffed beside her. "You make it sound like I was a little kid or something! I just enjoyed the swing every now and then that's all."

"No need to get defensive about it, Sayo." Kazumi chuckled as she stood at the base of the tower. She leaned back and took another shot of the building, the tower focused in the frame and stretching up into the late afternoon sky. She paused to review the shots she had taken so far, the pictures showing the entire structure looked good enough though the more she looked at them she thought that there seemed to be more shading than there should have been. The sun was still high enough that there shouldn't have been as many shadows as there seemed to be in the picture.

She checked the filters on the camera and found they were in the nominal settings for this time of day. Frowning curiously, she moved on to the pictures she had taken of the tower. There was some glare off one of the windows higher up but it didn't detract from the picture, instead it gave it a touch that Kazumi rather liked.

The _paparazzo _stepped away from the tower and moved along the side of the base structure, giving it a closer look. There were a pair of windows set into the wall at about chest level, but the panes had long been broken out. The position of the sun, and the lack of any other windows in this part of the structure, shrouded the inside in inky darkness, preventing Kazumi from seeing if there was any furniture still left within the building after all this time. A heavy-looking wooden door was set into a recessed opening was at the far end of the wall, opposite the end that supported the tower.

A soft humming from behind the middle school girl made her glance over her shoulder, where she identified the source, without much surprise, as her friend: Sayo. Sayo seemed to be really enjoying herself, the ghost girl floating in circles a short distance away, the wispy trail that replaced her feet seemed to be skipping to Kazumi. She seemed to be focused on an area where something had been many years ago, a space of soft sand with patches of concrete that were almost totally hidden by the surging flowers and grass growing all around it.

"Is that where all the swings used to be?" Kazumi asked, raising the camera back up and turning her attention back to the base structure. Sayo made a little sound of confirmation.

"Aren't you sad that they're not there anymore?"

Sayo was quiet for a moment before she answered. "A little. But if they were moved, it means they're being used somewhere else. If they were left here they'd be in poor shape I'll bet." Kazumi nodded as she took a step closer to the building, trying to have the base fill the frame. "You're probably right. I'm sure some kids are enjoying them somewhere." Once she was finally satisfied with the building's position, she adjusted her focus and took a quick shot.

She lowered the camera to view the picture she'd just taken, raising the camera to get a better look. The picture seemed all right enough, there was still that strange sense of darkness that hovered over the building. Kazumi growled in frustration and checked the settings yet again but found everything to be in order. Maybe the screen was beginning to burn out. At first she thought, that was the only thing off about the picture but then she noticed something else that drew her attention.

Within the window closest to the door, something appeared to be flashing within the darkness. She gripped the camera in both hands and brought it closer but the picture was too small to make out what it could be. Was there still some glass in the frame that was reflecting light? On the other hand, was something inside the building doing it?

She began to walk back up to the building, eyes narrowing as she looked through the window, trying to pick out the hint of something metallic or reflective within. Instead, she only found that impenetrable darkness meeting her searching gaze. She stopped a short distance from the window and frowned, rocking up onto her tiptoes and leaned from side to side as if perhaps getting a new angle would somehow wipe away the murk.

A loud and violent crashing shattered the relative serenity of the scene. The door nearby rattled in its frame, splinters of wood jutted out from the portal and dust sifted down around the edges of its frame. Kazumi sucked in a surprised breath and fell back onto her rear, dropping the camera between her feet in the process. She looked from the door and back towards the open window that seemed to loom over her now, filled with darkness and mystery and seeming to promise a threat, from her sprawled position. An uncanny silence had fallen upon the clearing the woods around it, the birds and summer insects had ceased their noise making.

Kazumi's chest rose and fell with her deep and shaky breaths before she began to crawl backwards on her hands and knees, stopped, and hurriedly reached forward to snatch up her camera before springing to her feet and backing away from the building. She felt Sayo come up alongside her. "Kazumi! A-Are you alright?"

She nodded once, trying to steady her breathing. "Yeah. Just…really scared me." She murmured. She looked to Sayo and then back to the building. The structure remained still, as if that last display had drawn the last bit of energy it may have had. Still it seemed to have gained an uneasy atmosphere wasn't there before. "Sayo…do you think there might be a ghost in there?"

Sayo blinked once, "I don't think so. In all my time here I've never run into another ghost."

Kazumi turned to look at her. "Could you go and check?" Sayo grew even paler and made a small squeaking sound, hands clasped tightly together over her chest as she shook her head from side to side, sending her long white-blonde hair swirling about her head.

Kazumi grimaced a little, "Er, yeah. Of course. Sorry, Sayo. My reporter side kind of came to the fore there." She chuckled quietly for a moment before turning her attention back to the building. She frowned to herself and then called out, 'Hello?" She felt a little silly for a moment but she sure as hell wasn't going to get that close to the building again without knowing for sure what was going on.

Silence was the only answer she received, though she wasn't sure why she was expecting anything else. Just when she was getting ready to speak, again she heard something from within the darkness of the building. A soft and slithering sound, like an object dragged across the floor but there was no pause in the sound, as you would expect if someone were actually dragging something. Instead the sound was long and continuous, the rasping making Kazumi think of deep and dark caves and serpentine beings with dry and rough skin.

Something began to move in the darkness through the window she had just been peeking through but that's all she could discern. There was no sense of shape or size, just the distinct impression of something darker than the shadows moving against them.

Kazumi took one step back away from the building, clutching her camera against her chest. She sensed motion coming from the other window, the one closer to the tower, and gave it only a furtive glance before taking another step back. Was there more than one? Or was the source of the sound so large that it you could see it in both of the windows at once…?

"Let's go, Sayo." Kazumi murmured. Her voice had only the barest hint of a quaver. Sayo gave a quick nod, her eyes fixed in on the old building before them, a slowly mounting fear filling the red orbs.

Kazumi paused and knelt to retrieve the paper she had left on the ground, her motions calm and slow as if nothing were wrong. Some part of her had the distinct impression that if she showed fear or panic at this moment that whatever was within the build would burst out and be upon her before she could raise a shout. She glanced up at the sky and the sun suddenly seemed much lower than it had a few minutes ago, the shadows longer and deeper.

The friends continued their slow and orderly fleeing of the clearing and the building that crouched in its center, carefully making their way back through the trees and to the stop. Kazumi started bouncing on her feet as she waited for the tram to come around again and pick them up. The gesture seemed light-hearted but the fear that lurked within her eyes told a different story for those who cared to look.

The birds and insects of the woods were still holding their silence by the time the tram arrived and took Kazumi and Sayo away.


	4. Discussion

**Author's Note: This chapter was really hard for me to write for some reason. It had a lot of dialogue in it and writing realistic dialogue has always been difficult for me. Or at least that's how it feels. A copious work schedule and my usual procrastination helped to delay its release as well. Still here it is and I hope you enjoy it. The next few chapters are going to have a faster pace to them so hopefully they'll be easier to write. **

**The lyrics to the song Evangeline is listening to is to a piece by John Dowland, an English composer and lutenist from the late 1500s to the early 1600s. **

**Discussion**

When the security guard arrived, Negi and the others were crowded near the entrance of the computer lab, not wanting to be near the curtain that separated the rest of the room from what Negi and Asuna had seen on the bed. The man gave them a questioning look until Negi made a vague gesture towards the curtain.

"There," He murmured. His young features were pale but he did his best to keep his expression strong in front of the others. Still the possibilities that the thing on the bed spelled out for his missing student presented scenarios that he didn't even want to think of.

The man stepped towards the curtain, his movements slow and cautious. Asuna stood by Negi's side, heterochromatic eyes turned to watch the security man along with Negi. Konoka and Setsuna stood just across from them, the sword girl took up a position just in front of the young white mage. Konoka's hands were wringing over her stomach, her normally bright features clouded with worry. Setsuna appeared relaxed but Negi could see the readiness in her short but lithe frame.

The security guard reached the curtain and pulled it to one side with a whisper of fabric. Negi and Asuna looked away, not wanting to glimpse the bed that lay beyond. Negi focused his gaze on the floor between them, waiting to hear a hissed breath of shock or horror from the man but instead there was only silence. The sound of the curtain being fully pushed aside made Negi look back up. The man was standing beside the bed and looking down at it with puzzlement writ on his face.

The guard looked back to Negi and his students. "Ah, I may be missing something but didn't you say you had found something on Satomi's bed?"

"Yes." Negi stepped forward to approach the guard and the bed. When he got closer, he realized why the guard didn't see the gruesome discovery he and Asuna had made only minutes ago.

The braid was gone. The bed was neatly made but there was no sign that the braid had ever been there. There wasn't even any spotting on the blue sheets where the torn scalp had touched them.

Negi was shortly at a loss for words. Emotions flooded through him in a confusing rush. It had just been here! He and Asuna had seen it with their very own eyes. He turned to look at the security guard, mouth opening once though nothing came forth. He had to close it and swallow once before he could speak. "It was just here! My student and I saw it! Honestly!"

Asuna nodded emphatically. "I saw it too! We weren't making it up."

He looked back and forth between the Negi and his students before he gave a small sigh and held up his hands, palms out, in a placating gesture. "No. I believe you saw something. I do."

Negi stood silently for another heartbeat, uncertainty filling his thoughts. Had he imagined it? But Asuna had seen it too. Still, that video had upset a number of his students and made him and others distinctly uneasy. Maybe it was affecting them enough that they were seeing things.

Negi sighed and hung his head forward, bowing slightly at the waist. "I'm sorry! It looks like we called up you here for nothing."

The security guard shook his head a little, "It's alright. We've been having quite a few cases of people seeing or hearing things around here lately. I've had a few calls like this already today."

"What kind of things have people been reporting?" Konoka asked.

The security guard glanced at Konoka before he shrugged. "Movement just out of sight is the most common. Like when you think you see something out of the corner of your eye. Shadows where there shouldn't be any. As for what people have been hearing it ranges from whispers to some kind of rustling." The man gave another brief shrug. "I've mostly chalked it up to stress playing tricks on some people until now, but there have been too many people to blame it all on jitters brought on by deadlines and project problems."

"Have you found any evidence that there's actually something going on?" Setsuna spoke up.

The guard looked at them for a long moment as if gauging his next comment before he finally answered. "Most of these reports started showing up the day that the Science Building started suffering technical problems. It's been about three days now since things have started. We'd study the security cameras for any unauthorized activity but they've been experiencing frequent malfunctions around the same time things started going strange around here." He hooked his thumbs into the loops of his belt. "I thought it was coincidence for the first day or so but…"

The guard looked to Negi. "If Satomi has really gone missing as you say then I'll let the rest of the security staff here now so they can keep an eye out for her. I'll be sure to let campus security know to look for her as well."

Negi nodded and smiled just a little, "Thank you very much. If you hear, anything please let me know. "

The guard nodded to Negi before he turned and strode out of the room, leaving the teacher and his students alone in the room once more. Asuna sighed and reached up to idly scratch by one of her tails, the bell in her hair giving a single, soft chime as she did so. "This is weird, Negi-bozu. We definitely saw something didn't we? I mean we didn't imagine it."

Negi shook his head. "I don't think we did." The guard's testimony seemed to support that he and Asuna had actually seen something, or thought they had at the very least. Negi sighed in confusion and hung his head just a little, "I don't know how I should feel. If what we saw wasn't real then it means that Satomi-san may still be all right. But…" He didn't want to finish the thought but, to his surprise, and everyone else's, Konoka finished it.

"It may have been a sign." She murmured quietly. The young white mage in training looked down at the floor of the room, her hands lightly folded over her stomach. Her usual cheerful and hopeful demeanor was nowhere in sight.

Setsuna turned her head to look at Konoka, her face showing an expression that wasn't often seen on the young sword girl: surprise. "Ojousama! We can't know that for certain."

Konoka looked back up at Setsuna, eyes meeting those of her bodyguard's for a moment before turning to take in Negi and Asuna as well. "I know." She admitted. "But whatever Negi and Asuna saw… It frightened and upset them badly. In terms of an omen, it's not very good." She briefly wrapped her arms around herself before she shook her head. "I'm sorry. Maybe I've been spending too much time reading fortunes lately. Making me want to see things where there's nothing at all."

Setsuna stood by Konoka's side, placing a slender hand on the girl's shoulder in reassurance. "No, Ojousama. You don't have to apologize. We're all worried about Hakase-san, but we mustn't give up hope."

Negi nodded his agreement, "Setsuna-san is right. What Asuna and I saw was upsetting but--" He paused, trying to find the right words before continuing. "But we can't accept that it's a sign of what's happened. I'm sure we'll find her and help her if she needs it." The young teacher felt his conviction returning as he spoke and he stood a little straighter by the time he had finished. "As her teacher I promise to do everything I can to find out what's going on around here."

Asuna stepped up behind Negi and put her hand on the top of his head, pushing him down just a little and ruffling his hair. "Well I don't think we can do anything else just hanging around here."

Negi grimaced and stepped out from underneath Asuna's hand and gave her his best put upon face before he sighed and reached up to try to smooth out his hair. "Asuna-san is right. I talked with Takamichi before I decided to head out here to the Science Building. Maybe we can get back in touch with him and see if he's found anything."

The group left the quiet computer lab and exited the building, thoughtful silence reigning over them as they stepped outside. The sun had crept further towards the horizon and Negi cast an unconscious glance at the luminous star before something else caught his attention.

Takahata was approaching the Science Building, hands tucked into the front pockets of his pants, pushing up the hem of his jacket. A cigarette dangled from the corner of his mouth, a thin trail of smoke curling from the tip. He stopped immediately when he saw Negi and his students on the steps of the Science Building and he offered them a small smile though it didn't seem to reach his eyes.

Negi and the others hurried forward to meet him. "Negi-kun," Takahata began, pausing to give the girls a brief nod in greeting. Asuna shifted just a little on her feet when it came to her turn, the girl still getting over her long crush on the teacher.

"I was hoping I'd catch you here." Takahata continued. "I took a look at the video like you asked me to." He paused, moving his gaze over Negi and his students, studying them before he finished. "And I couldn't find what you described."

"What?! That's impossible!" Asuna exclaimed. "We all saw it! Honest, Takahata-sensei!"

"We did, Takahata-sensei." Setsuna echoed Asuna's words. "You believe us don't you?"

The older man lifted one hand and nodded, quieting their protests. "I believe you. All of you. Even though I didn't see what you described to me Negi-kun I did come across a part of the tape that appeared to be have been damaged somehow. Right around the area where you said things began to change."

Takahata explained what he found to them, the section of tape where audio and video was damaged and how it seemed to last as long as what Negi had described. Negi and his students remained silent for a couple of beats once he had finished his explanation before Konoka posed her old homeroom teacher a question.

"Takahata-sensei, do you think that what we saw was an illusion? Because we ran into something similar inside Hakase-chan's room in the Science Building."

Takahata turned his eyes to Negi, eyebrows raised in a silent question. Negi explained to him what they had just encountered. The reports of strange sounds, people seeing things, and then their own experience with the thing that was on Satomi's bed and then how it had disappeared between the time they saw it and brought the security man into the room.

The teacher waited patiently, listening to all the details Negi and his students had to share with him. "Negi-kun, when you first saw…the think on Satomi-kun's bed; did you sense any magic? Any thing at all that may have hinted at it being an illusion or trick?"

Negi thought back on the discovery and furrowed his brow as he concentrated. Had there been anything like that? The more he thought about it the more he realized that the only thing that he felt was an overwhelming sensation of fear and dread for his student.

The boy wizard hung his head just a little, "I-I don't think so, Takamichi. When I saw it I was just so-so frightened." He sighed and shook his head, "I should've stayed calm but instead I let my fear take over. I'm sorry."

Takahata shook his head. "Don't be Negi-kun," He said emphatically, fixing the young teacher's eyes with his own. "Considering the situation I can't say I would have been thinking clearly if I were in your place either."

Negi looked back up at Takahata and nodded. "Maybe, but I promise not to make the same mistake again." The boy drew himself up, reaching back to briefly grasp at the staff strapped diagonally across his back as if finding reassurance in its presence, a reminder of his missing father.

The older man smiled, "I know you won't, Negi-kun." He reached up to pluck the rapidly diminished cigarette from his lip and crushed it beneath a foot before he retrieved a pack from an inside pocket of his jacket and shook out a fresh stick of paper and tobacco. "The more I've thought about what's happened the more I'm beginning to think we should see if there's been an increase in absences or people not arriving for work." Takahata placed the cigarette in the corner of his mouth and lit it with a much-practiced gesture. "It might not turn up anything but we could check with the Dean and see if he's received any peculiar information from any of the other schools around the campus."

A light and electronic chirping erupted from one of the pockets of Takahata's jacket and he retrieved a slender cell phone from within, promptly snapping it open and answered with a polite, "Yes?" He paused before his eyebrows raised just a touch. "Negi-kun and I were just discussing you as a matter of fact. We were going to check with you about--"

The older man's voice cut off and his brows furrowed in thought. Negi could feel something tightening in his chest as he watched his friend.

"Yes. Yes of course. Right away." Takahata's responses were quick, quiet and professional before he finally snapped the phone shut and turned his attention back to Negi and his students.

"Was that grandpa?" Konoka asked quietly, her hands lacing together tightly over her stomach. The expression on the girl's face said she already knew the answer, however.

The teacher nodded in confirmation. "He wants to see us." He looked at Negi. "Others have gone missing."

* * *

Dean Konoemon's office was large and stately but still managed to possess an air of comfort and ease that didn't intimidate.

The dean's desk was straight ahead of the entrance, large paneled windows took up nearly the entire wall behind it. A small coffee table with an armchair and couch in orbit around it stood to one side, just beneath a staircase that lead up to a platform that held many bookshelves and even more chairs, making for an almost library-like atmosphere.

Negi, Takahata and the girls stepped into the office and approached the dean's desk. Konoemon sat behind it. He was an old, almost ancient looking, man but he had a presence that left no one doubting that he wasn't capable of his duties as dean of one of the largest campuses in the world. His eyes were rarely seen, mostly obscured by thick, bushy white eyebrows that drooped down over his features, a matching compliment to his flowering white beard and moustache. His head was mostly bald, what hair he did have was pulled back into a topknot. His ears had heavy metal hoops that pierced them and stretched the man's ear lobes to nearly his shoulders.

The dean wasn't alone in his office, however. Negi recognized some of the others present as mages that doubled as teachers among the various schools that made their homes on the campus. Two figures were especially familiar: Takane D. Goodman and Mei Sakura.

Takane stood taller than Mei, her hair was long and blonde while Mei's was shoulder-length and reddish-brown. While the uniform Mei wore was the more colorful combination of burgundy, white with a tartan skirt, Takane's was more drab, a simple black and white dress that did much to evoke the image of a nun. Despite the fact that the girls were students they were both full-fledged mages and Negi had had to deal with both of them before in combat, though it was mostly through misunderstandings. Mostly.

"Takamichi-kun, Negi-kun, I'm pleased to see the two of you arrive on such short notice. I only wish it were under more pleasant circumstances." Konoemon began. Negi and Takahata both gave him a brief nod before they came to a stop shortly before the desk. Asuna, Konoka and Setsuna stood further back from the pair.

"So do we." Takahata concurred. He gave a brief look around at the others gathered before continuing. "What else has been going on?"

"Perhaps it would be best if you and Negi shared your discoveries first." Konoemon suggested.

Negi glanced up at Takahata, who gave him a small nod, before the child teacher started over from the beginning. The strange images on the video, the gruesome discovery in Satomi's room at the Science Building and its subsequent disappearance and then the information revealed to him by the security guard. Takahata spoke up only to describe what he had, or more accurately had not, seen on the video.

"This is troubling. From what Negi-kun says it looks more and more as if something has happened to Satomi-kun." The dean murmured.

Negi spoke up quickly, "But we haven't found any evidence that something has! Not everything that I've seen, or thought I've seen, can be proven. We shouldn't give up on Satomi-san. Not yet."

The room was quiet for a moment but then his frame shook with a brief and quiet laugh. "Negi-kun, I don't think we should give up hope on her." He paused for a moment before he continued, lifting a brow to reveal one glittering and intelligent eye as he studied Negi. "But part of growing up, Negi-kun, is that sometimes we have to prepare for the worst." He held up a long-fingered hand to forestall any protests from the young boy. "I sincerely hope nothing has happened to Satomi-kun but you aren't the only one who's had someone go missing in your class today." Konoemon looked away from Negi and toward the pair of girls that stood to one side of the desk.

"A girl went missing from my class today as well," Takane began, the girl shifting her gaze to Negi and Takahata. "Like Satomi-san she called in sick this morning as well, but her roommate said that she was already gone by the time she had gotten up and left for school."

"But she wasn't at class when she showed up right?" Negi asked. The anxiety that had been with him since that morning was only growing as the day progressed.

Takane nodded. "Right." She confirmed. "I considered the possibility that maybe she had skipped classes today but something about this wasn't sitting right with me. Now that I've heard your story, Negi-san I feel like there may be a connection between your missing student and my own."

"I can't speak for myself or Takane but I've heard stories from other students who say they've heard strange sounds for the past couple of nights." Mei reached up to tuck one sorrel-colored tail back over her shoulder. "Considering the nature of the campus I didn't think it was much to make note of. And students have a way of starting rumors like this to get themselves frightened. But I have noticed some of the electrical disturbances Negi-san encountered with his students. Lights seemed to flicker at the dorms I'm in and I heard some girls complaining about their radios getting a lot of interference. Some even said they heard…" The younger girl paused. Her expression didn't change but the slight shifting of her posture betrayed her unease. "Heard sounds and voices coming through them. I didn't ask them so I don't know specifics. I thought that maybe they had just been watching too many horror films."

Konoemon stroked at his beard thoughtfully. "We've had a number of unusual circumstances over the years here at the Mahora campus but I can't say I've ever encountered anything quite this unusual or widespread before."

He remained quiet for a moment more before he spoke again, his tone held no hint of command or authoritarianism but everyone stood ready to follow his words to the letter. "I want all of you to begin patrolling the campus tonight. Keep your eyes and senses open for anything that even hints of being out of place. If any of you encounter a disturbance do not, and I cannot stress this enough, do not attempt to investigate or confront it by yourselves." The old man looked around the spacious office slowly, making sure all those present understood him. "Until we know the nature of what we're dealing with we can't risk going in blind. If at all possible we must capture or trace the source of these disturbances and see if it can lead us to our missing students."

Negi nodded, the young mage standing a little straighter when he listened to the dean's orders. This was it. He was going to help save his students and everyone else here at the campus. Working alongside Takahata and the rest there was no doubt that--

"Negi-kun, I want you to remain in the dorms with Asuna-Kun and my granddaughter."

Negi blinked once, the surprise was impossible to keep from his features. "What? But why? I want to help everyone else!" The young wizard tried this best to keep his voice from rising too much with his disappointment and confusion.

"I know you do, Negi-kun. And we're all aware of your many accomplishments over your time here at Mahora, but you're still a mage in training."

Negi began to protest again but Konoemon raised his hand in a patient gesture that made him swallow his frustration.

The dean stroked at his beard again, one of his eyes becoming visible to fix Negi's eyes with his own. "Don't worry, Negi-kun." He began with a gleam in his eye. "I'm already preparing to bring in some extra help to deal with our current situation."

* * *

Removing one hand from the bamboo-shafted broom she used to sweep the shrine grounds, Mana Tatsumiya shielded her eyes from the dull orange glow of the setting sun.

The Tatsumiya shrine was the only Shinto shrine on the Mahora campus and Mana was its _miko._ She was dressed in traditional _miko _attire: red _hakama, _a white kimono shirt and _tabi_. Her light mocha skin, a product of her bi-racial heritage, stood in contrast to the quintessentially Japanese nature of her outfit. She sensed the approach of visitors without taking her eyes from the setting sun, stepping to one side of the path and clutching the handle of the broom to her chest with both hands. She smiled politely and gave the barest bow of her head, before she looked up after them as they passed under the _torii _and left the shrine.

In mere moments, she weighed and judged the visitors, studying their body language and posture. It was an old habit but not one she particularly wanted to break. She reached up to tuck one of the lengths of her dark hair back over her shoulder, before she turned her attention back to sweeping the pathway. It was getting late and that would probably be the last visitors she could expect for the day.

Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot rang out in the late afternoon air. Mana didn't flinch or duck for cover, the sound followed almost immediately by a slow and methodic drumbeat and then four notes from a whistle that played a tune that was instantly recognizable to almost anyone in the modern world. Mana retrieved the cell phone from a hidden fold of her _hakama_ just as a man's voice began vocalizing, the second the triumvirate of instruments that made up the theme of _The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly_.

The ring tone wasn't her usual one, but activated only when she received calls for her special services. That specific contact number wasn't widely known and used only by a few specific sources and thoroughly verified clients. The number routed the call through a scrambling device she kept in a PO Box at the campus mailroom, protecting her anonymity and that of the person trying to contact her. If there were any attempts to bypass the scrambler, it would automatically disconnect the call and send her text message on a different phone.

The _miko_ snapped the phone open and held it to her ear with one hand, the other still clutching the bamboo broom as she moved off to one side around one of the buildings in the shrine, out of sight from the main path. Once she was sure was out of sight she spoke, "Yes?"

"Mana-kun, I'm glad I was able to get a hold of you on such short notice." The dean's voice came to her loud and clear through the receiver. Despite his words there was a suggestion in his voice that told her he had no doubts that she'd be able to answer him so quickly.

"What can I do for you, dean?" The girl spoke calmly, professionally. Her brown eyes were in constant motion, studying her surroundings in an effort to keep an eye out for anyone who may approach or potential eavesdroppers.

"Since you're a part of Negi-kun's class I'm sure you're already aware of the situation involving your classmate, Satomi-kun."

Only the slightest tensing of her shoulders choreographed her unease. The video hadn't horrified her as it had some of her classmates. Mana had spent time in some hellish parts of the world and had personally seen much worse. However, something about it had triggered her sixth sense. It was something she had developed from her constant exposure to danger while growing up and exploring unstable regions of the world. It manifested as a small tickling at the base of her skull whenever danger was present.

At the time, she had explained it away as just surprise at seeing Satomi pull such a cruel and grotesque joke. Now she realized how foolish she was to ignore it.

"If you're contacting me it means the situation isn't looking good." The _miko _murmured. "Satomi-san either hasn't show up or you've found her and she wasn't alright."

"The former." He specified. "I know you would report anything at all that seemed unusual to you, Mana-kun but I have to ask: Has there been anything at all that struck you as unusual? Quite a broad definition around here I know."

At first, she felt a little insulted by Konoemon's question. If there had been anything at all, she would have reported it immediately. But then she hadn't reacted as she should have earlier when she first saw the tape either. Had something came onto the campus without her knowing about it? A part of her wanted to dismiss the possibility outright but a wiser voice within told her that overestimating her abilities or underestimating those of her opponent was a surefire recipe for defeat. Or death.

"I can't think of anything." She finally answered. "But there's still the possibility that someone or something has been prowling around campus." She paused. "We are talking about a _something_ aren't we?"

"I'm leaning in that direction, Mana-kun."

"Is it a demon? Spirit? I'd like to know what kind of rounds to take with me when I hunt tonight."

"This isn't a hunt yet, Mana-kun. I will tell you what I told the others: If you do come across anything at all do not confront it. We want to be able to track it back to Satomi-kun and the others if possible."

"'Others?'" She echoed. "So Satomi-san isn't the only one that's gone missing then." The girl sighed quietly and glanced back up at the sky, the orange of dusk quickly replaced by the purples that heralded nightfall. "Very well. I'm still bringing my weapons."

"Of course. Just because I want you to avoid a battle doesn't mean I want you to put yourself in unnecessary danger. Besides," A light teasing tone entered the old man's voice. "I doubt I could tear you away from them if I really wanted to."

The girl smirked into the phone. "A wise man. My usual fees apply of course." She rounded the corner of the building and made her way towards the storage room to put away her broom and gather her equipment. "Tell me everything you know."

* * *

Chachamaru arrived at the home she and Evangeline shared just as the sun vanished beneath the horizon. The trees that surrounded the large cabin the students shared helped to usher in the darkness much more quickly for the pair.

The gynoid stepped up to the entrance and slipped inside. "Mistress. I'm home." She announced in her usual calm and quiet voice.

She stepped into the main living room and the soft and melancholy sound of a lute greeted her. A woman's voice accompanied the delicate plucking of the strings, her voice seeming to bear the weight of a world upon it.

_Hark! You shadows that in darkness dwell,_

_Learn to contemn light._

_Happy, happy they that in hell,_

_Feel not the world's despite._

The lute and voice were emanating from stereo speakers that were secreted somewhere within the spacious room. The many toys that covered nearly every surface in the room made pinpointing the speakers quite a task. Many of them were stuffed animals with rather macabre details (bandages and other things one might find among the maimed) and Victorian-style dolls, many of them dressed in immaculate dresses and gowns. Evangeline was sitting in one of a pair of overstuffed armchairs positioned near the center of the room; she had changed out of her uniform and into an outfit that wouldn't look out of place on one of her dolls. She had a book open and balanced neatly on the palm of one hand, the other hovered over the corner of page, turning it in a smooth motion before she finally looked up towards Chachamaru. She raised her turning hand to push a pair of reading glasses up her small nose, her blue eyes shining through the lenses.

"You're late." She observed. Evangeline didn't seem particularly upset about it however, quite a surprise to the gynoid girl. Before Chachamaru could offer an apology, Evangeline spoke again. "Did you run into anything unusual while you were out?"

Chachamaru's brow furrowed just a little in puzzlement. She was late and Evangeline wasn't berating her, instead she was asking questions. Again, she had the suspicion that something was troubling her mistress. As for anything unusual…

"Well," She began after a moment more of consideration. "There was something that involved a boy. He was very frightened by something that he saw in an alleyway. I looked down the alley but I couldn't find anything that should have scared him in such a way." She paused, hesitating on whether or not to share that something about the alley had frightened her despite the presence of anything overtly scary.

"Is that all?" The vampiress was leaning back in her chair now, her gaze leveled on Chachamaru as if sensing that she was holding something back.

The gynoid hesitated before deciding to share her experience. "I looked in the alley and while I couldn't see anything frightening I still managed to feel…frightened." She looked down at her feet, hands folding neatly over the front of her stomach. She waited for the inevitable insult or teasing remark. And waited. And waited.

Finally, she turned her eyes upwards and saw Evangeline looking at her intently. Chachamaru blinked once and almost felt herself start blushing under the look. "I-Is something wrong, Mistress?"

"You tell me." She murmured vaguely before she sighed and turned her attention back to the book in her hand. "Well don't just stand there, Chachamaru. You're behind schedule and it's about time for my evening tea."

Despite Evangeline's sudden brusque manner, Chachamaru felt a wave of relief. If Evangeline was ordering her around then things were slowly getting back to their normal routine.

Chachamaru bowed at the waist, "At once, Mistress." She turned and left the living room, heading towards her room within the cabin and changing out of her school uniform and into her maid costume. Following her tea making routine, and adjusting the speed to make up for being behind schedule, she was able to have a kettle of tea brewed and ready for her mistress within minutes. The pleasant aroma of the tea reached her olfactory sensors and she couldn't help but smile in appreciation. Since she was unable to taste the tea herself smelling it was as close as she would ever get to enjoying it beyond the calm that came with the ritual of making it.

She carefully poured the tea through a strainer and into a teapot, which she placed upon a silver carrying tray along with a cup and a small bowl of sugar cubes. With a precision that could only be borne from a machine, she delicately hefted the tray and carried it into the living room where Evangeline still lounged in her chair. One hand still cradled the book while the other extended to one side in an almost lazy-looking gesture, fingers slightly curled.

Chachamaru managed to find enough open space on the nearby table to set the tray down and prepare her mistress' tea. Pour the tea, add two teaspoons of sugar, and stir counterclockwise four times and clockwise three times. This particular formula was used to prepare the tea that Evangeline enjoyed the most and was always used for the first cup she presented to the vampiress. Tea making was something which she had done almost every day since she was first activated and she had narrowed it down to a science. In fact, it was now a permanent part of her programming.

With the cup of tea prepared she carefully lifted it from the tray and expertly placed it within Evangeline's slightly extended hand. Her fingers curled around it immediately and brought it in for a sip, her blue eyes lidded partway in an expression that Chachamaru recognized as pleasure. The gynoid folded her hands over her stomach and bowed forward at the waist in a silent show of thanks and began to turn away to begin her nightly chores when, among the many dolls and toys, there came the insistent electronic chirping of a phone.

Evangeline uttered a soft and tired-sounding sigh but she didn't take her eyes off the book. "Chachamaru." She murmurs before taking another long sip of her tea.

The gynoid bowed again, "Yes mistress." She turned towards the far side of the room and carefully sorted through the dolls until she found it beneath a grinning fox in a stovepipe hat and a Victorian doll in a matching red dress and bonnet and icy blue eyes.

"Yes?" She answered the phone, her voice quiet and deferential.

"Ah, Chachamaru-kun." Konoemon's voice came though the line. "Is your mistress there?" She could detect the faintest hint of amusement in his words and for some reason she felt like blushing.

"Oh yes. You wish to speak with her?"

"Indeed. It's quite urgent."

Chachamaru turned to face Evangeline, one hand cupping the mouthpiece of the receiver. "Mistress, it's the dean. He wishes to speak with you. He says it's urgent."

Something passed quickly over the vampiress' features, if it were anyone else besides Chachamaru, someone who wasn't so familiar with her expressions, it may have gone unnoticed. Whatever it was it seemed to have passed in that moment. Evangeline sighed dramatically and snapped the book shut with her hand, setting it into her lap. She extended her hand towards Chachamaru, fingers curling in an impatient beckoning gesture while she took another sip of her tea, the slurp that accompanied it betraying her growing irritation.

When she handed the phone to Evangeline she took a step back, hands neatly folded over her front as she listened in on Evangeline's half of the conversation.

"What is it, old man?" Evangeline's usual greeting for the dean of Mahora campus.

There was a beat of silence and then Evangeline's features darkened and she uttered a low curse. "So you're tapping Chachamaru and me for patrol duty then? Oh don't give me that, old man I know the full moon is a few days away but we both know I'm not helpless." She listened silently for a few more moments before she spoke again. "Fine. We'll be ready shortly." She terminated the call with a quiet growl and then handed the phone out towards Chachamaru.

The gynoid retrieved the phone and placed it back in its cradle before turning her attention back to Evangeline. Something about her expression brought her anxiety back and she found her thoughts returning to what she had been trying to avoid thinking of for most of the day: Satomi.

"Satomi-san. Something's wrong with her after all, isn't there?" Though her expression remained neutral the gynoid was alarmed to hear an almost tremulous quality enter her voice.

Evangeline wasn't looking at her; the vampiress' blue eyes seemed to be focused on some far off object beyond the walls of the cabin. Raising the tea cup to her lips she tilted her head back to finish it off and hopped out of the chair, setting the book and cup onto the serving tray. "I don't know, Chachamaru. But we've been tasked to patrol the campus and be on the look out."

Chachamaru straightened, her program routines were already beginning to switch from domestic duties to security which put her into a state of constant combat readiness, something that was reflected in her change of posture. "What are we looking for, mistress?" Her voice was steady now, though her core personality still struggled with worry for Satomi.

Evangeline finally turned her attention back to Chachamaru and a humorless smile touched her young-looking features. "I'm not sure, but I'm certain we'll know when we see it."


	5. The First Night: Nightfall

**Author's Note: After more procrastination, ACEN, severe weather and the distraction known as Mana Khemia the chapter is finally done. Actually, this chapter was originally quite big so I went ahead and cut it in two. **

**After some consideration, I've revised how I'm going to use honorifics. From now on, I'm going to reserve them for only the more formal speakers and, of course, in the use of nicknames since Konoka seems to call everybody -chan or -kun anyway.**

**I hope you enjoy! **

**The First Night:**

**Nightfall**

By the time Negi and the others had returned to the dorms the sun had vanished entirely beneath the horizon, leaving the sky a deep purple that was rapidly turning to black. Wisps of gray clouds drifted through the night sky, their shapes left spaces of black on the canvas of stars where they moved. The moon had not yet risen.

As the daylight diminished, Negi found that he and the others had started walking closer together, almost subconsciously, as if seeking protection and reassurance in the proximity of the people around them. Asuna stood close by his side; her heterochromatic eyes were in constant motion, as if examining every shadow and bush for a hidden threat. Konoka stood close behind him and Setsuna stood behind them all, the sword girl kept adjusting the strap that held _Yuunagi _against her back. Takahata was no longer with them, the group having parted ways with the older teacher after they left the dean's office.

They shared few words since they had begun their trek back to the dorms. The silence only compounded the feeling of tension that hung around them and showed no signs of abating until they got within sight of the dorms. The bright electric lights that flooded through the glass doors seemed to burn away the tension and as Negi opened the door and the sounds of students chattering reached his ears, the child teacher finally felt like he could breathe easily again.

He recognized most of the girls present as students from his own class., even some of the girls that wouldn't ordinarily be found in the common room, like Chisame, were present. They were scattered in groups, the sound of their discussions created a low and pleasant murmur, punctuated by peals of laughter or the softer bubble of giggles. However, to Negi there seemed to be a strained quality to the veneer of levity, as if they were trying hard to pretend that everything was normal.

Misa saw him first; the cheerleader was sitting at a table with the other cheerleader girls, Madoka and Sakurako, and Ako.

"Negi-sensei!" Sakurako called out to him as she got up from her seat. The other conversations slowly died out when the girls turned their attention towards their teacher. Some of them rose from their seats to get closer while others remained where they sat.

Negi smiled to the girls as the approached him, offering a friendly wave as well to the others who remained seated. "Good evening, everyone." He stated. "You all look like you're enjoying yourselves. That's good to see."

His students returned his smile for a few heartbeats before their expressions seemed to flicker. Some of the girls glanced to one another, as if engaging in some silent communication with their eyes. Eventually Madoka spoke the question that was on their minds.

"Negi-sensei… Did you speak with Satomi? Did you find out why she did what she did?" The whole room seemed to have grown quiet except for the far off sound of conversations carried on by girls that weren't part of his class.

Negi looked over the faces of his students. They all watched him expectantly, waiting for him to soothe their fears and tell them that their classmate was all right. Negi briefly caught and held the worried gaze of Nodoka, the librarian girl stood towards the back of the group with Yue and Haruna.

"I'm sorry everyone…" He began quietly; he fought the urge to glance away. He was determined to look them in the eye as he broke the news. "Satomi is missing. We couldn't find her at the Science Building."

"You don't mean-" Ako gasped and brought her hands up to cover her mouth, her eyes were wide with shock. The other girls reacted much the same way, some murmured among themselves while others gasped quietly.

A surge of frustration overtook the young wizard for a moment and before he could stop himself he yelled, "No!"

Some of the girls jumped at the sudden loudness of his voice and he winced to himself before he held up his hands in a placating gesture, moving them downwards. "We don't know what's happened to Satomi. I can tell you all right now that I saw nothing to suggest that what we saw this morning actually happened. So please, everyone, don't jump to any conclusions."

"I believe you, Negi-sensei." Nodoka called out. Getting a closer look at her Negi saw that she seemed very pale and there was redness to her eyes that suggested she'd been crying up until recently. He didn't have much time to think on this detail before Ayaka strode forward to stand between Negi and his group and the rest of the girls.

"There's no reason we shouldn't. While acting the fool may be common for some in our class, I have enough sense to know that Negi-sensei has only our best intentions at heart!"

Negi heard Asuna grunt quietly at his side but she remained silent, willing to indulge her nemesis for the moment for the sake of calm.

"As class representative," Ayaka continued. "I say that we can best help Negi-sensei by trusting in him." The girl smiled down at him, her eyes shining with admiration and affection.

"Er, thank you, Iincho-san." Negi murmured, feeling both embarrassed and relieved at Ayaka's intervention. "Please everyone just relax. I have already spoken to the dean and people are looking for Satomi as we speak. They're very capable and I'm sure they'll find something out before too long."

There was a few more murmurs before the girls nodded with a chorus of "Yes, Negi-sensei." They began to drift apart into their own groups again. Nodoka and the others were about to depart when Negi called out for her.

"Nodoka." The purple-haired girl gave a brief start and turned back to look at him, a flush added some color to her pale cheeks.

"W-what is it, Negi-sensei?" She asked timidly. Yue and Haruna paused and gave each other a look and started to turn and leave before a look from Negi told them it was all right to stay behind.

"It looks like something's been bothering you. Has something else happened since class?" Negi tilted his head, trying to meet her eyes with his own. "If there has will you tell us?"

"You can tell us, Hon'ya-chan." Konoka encouraged. "There are strange things going on all over campus so…"

Nodoka remained silent for a moment more, one hand drawn against her front in a familiar and shy gesture before she sighs softly. "It was at Library Island earlier today. I…" She shook her head a little and tried her best to flash Negi a smile, though she wasn't quite successful. "It's really silly."

Negi shook his head, "Not at all, Nodoka. If you don't want to talk about it that's okay but, it might help us to know what's going on around the campus." The boy grew silent for a moment before he began to speak again, reaching out to touch Nodoka's shoulder, a show of comfort and encouragement. "You're a really brave girl, Nodoka. If something frightened you it must have really been frightening."

He felt the girl's body tense under his touch and her face flooded with color. He knew that she had feelings for him and it was all he could do to keep from blushing too. He removed his hand hurriedly after another moment of warm contact, laughing nervously. "Ah, sorry Nodoka."

The girl shook her head, purple hair flying about her face. "Oh! I-It's all right, Negi-sensei! Ah, ha ha ha!" Her laugh sounded forced and embarrassed. Haruna grinned over the girl's shoulder while Yue watched on silently, though her usually impassive expression seemed to be touched with some amusement.

His brief touch, as awkward as it may have been, seemed to put a bit of strength into the girl. She met his eyes under the overhanging curtain of her bangs and began to speak again. "It was a book, Negi-sensei. The pictures on the cover frightened me so much." She gave a brief shiver but she continued to look at him, as if gaining courage from his gaze. "Paru and Yue-Yue didn't see anything frightening, and neither did I after I looked at it later, but for that moment it was very scary." She laughed again and broke eye contact with him, glancing down at the floor. "I told you it was silly."

Negi shook his head, "It's not silly at all, Nodoka. Asuna and I both saw something really scary at the Science Building that wasn't there when we looked later." He glanced over his shoulder at the girl in question and she nodded in confirmation.

"R-really?" Nodoka asked, looking back up at Negi and Asuna.

"What did you see?" Yue asked. Her normally deadpan tone hinted at a morbid curiosity.

Negi glanced at Asuna again, the orange-haired girl met his glance and her mouth twisted into a little grimace. Obviously, she didn't want to relive the details yet again.

"Ah, it was really bad." Negi murmured as he looked back at the trio of librarian girls.

Nodoka and Yue seemed to get the hint and they both simply nodded. Haruna looked a little disappointed but she didn't press for details.

"Was there anything else, Nodoka?" He looked from her towards her two friends, eyebrows rising to show that the question was for them as well. Yue answered him.

"Right before Nodoka started acting frightened again, the lights in the library acted strange. They flickered off and on." She chewed on her lower lip before extrapolating. "Not all at once like we had a power problem but they seemed to flicker in a row, like something was only affecting lights one at a time."

Negi felt ice form in his stomach. "So it's happening out at Library Island too." He murmured.

"What's happening, Negi-sensei?" Yue asked. "If something is going on around the campus please don't hide it from us. We're all your partners here." Her voice dropped a little at the last few words. "We might be able to help you if you tell us everything you know."

Negi began to shake his head but when he saw Yue begin to protest, he made a calming gesture. "No. I understand what you mean but what I meant to say is that you know about as much as we do at the moment." He smiles. "I know all of you want to help and I really appreciate it. Nevertheless, as it stands there is not a lot for us to go on. We'd be grasping for answers in the dark, so I think the best thing to do for the moment is to let the other mages do their patrol for now."

Negi looked over the library trio for another moment before he suggested, "It's been a trying day for all of us. Let's focus on getting some rest right now."

Yue didn't look wholly mollified. "I can still use the _Orbis Sensualium Pictus _to see if there's any information that matches what's going on now. I can look up fear or illusion spells."

Negi thought for a moment and then nodded. "That's a really good idea, Yue."

_It also keeps her out of danger_, he thought.

Negi and the rest slipped away from the librarian girls, making their way to the steps that would lead up to Asuna, Konoka and Negi's dorm room.

"I've been on my feet all day." Asuna complained. "And I want to get out of this uniform. I can't wait to take a bath and change."

Negi couldn't help but silently agree with her. He'd found that running around and trying to save his campus, and on some occasions the world, could make one sweat a lot more when you did it wearing a three-piece suit.

"Negi-sensei?"

Someone called out to him from the first floor and he paused at the landing, looking down to find who hailed him. Kazumi stood at the foot of the stairs, her hands tugged nervously at the hem of her skirt, the redhead's usual mischievous expression seemed troubled.

When Asuna and the others paused to look at him, he shook his head. "Go on ahead everyone. I'll catch up." Asuna heaved a thankful sigh, the girls continued upwards to their room, and Negi turned his attention back to Kazumi, coming down the steps to meet her. "What is it, Kazumi?"

"I don't know if this has anything to do with what we saw this morning or not but it feels like to does. You know about the project I'm doing for the paper, right?" She began.

Negi nodded.

"Well, I was taking pictures of an old clock tower just outside of the campus town and, well, there was something inside it."

Negi blinked. "What do you mean 'something?'?"

Kazumi shuffled on her feet for a moment, her eyes casting off to one side, looking at something he couldn't see. He knew that she was most likely looking at her ghostly friend. He had only seen Sayo occasionally and found that out of all the things they hadn't prepared him for back at the Magic Academy, having a ghost as a student was probably one of the more unusual ones.

"Well I'm not sure, Negi-sensei." Kazumi looked down at the floor with an uncharacteristic embarrassment. "I could hear something moving around inside the building, and it slammed against the door really hard! Like it was going to bust through to try and get me." She looked back up at him. "I could also see something moving around inside the building through the windows, but it was too dark inside to tell what it was. It really scared Sayo and me, Negi-sensei."

Negi felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and his heart skipped a beat. This was the most concrete information he's heard of a possible location all day. "I'm sure it did." He agreed. "How long ago was this, Kazumi?"

"Just a few hours ago, Negi-sensei. After I took my pictures and got spooked out-" She blinked before turning her head to the empty space beside her and offered a small smile. "Sorry, Sayo." She turned back to Negi to continue. "After I took my pictures and got _freaked_ out I came straight back here to the dorms."

"That's good, Kazumi." Negi smiled at the girl. "Thank you for telling me! It looks like your reporter instincts may have paid off big. This could be really important and help us find Satomi and put a stop to what's going on much more quickly." He turned to head back up the steps after Asuna and the others when Kazumi stopped him again.

"So are you going to go out and investigate it, Negi-sensei?" A gleam in her eye made the boy teacher suddenly feel on guard. Her question, however, shortly had him at a loss. The dean had instructed him not to involve himself in the patrol. He should really share this with Takahata or the others, but if he took the time to try to get in contact with them, whatever there was to find at this building might be gone by the time they got there.

"Yes," Negi decided suddenly. "Yes I am, Kazumi. If there's even the remote chance this has something to do with Satomi's disappearance then I have to go out there and find out."

"Then I'm coming too!" Kazumi declared, her mouth splitting into a wide and eager grin.

"What?! But just a minute ago you were talking about how frightened you were of that place!"

The girl grinned and sidled up beside Negi, "But I didn't have you there with me! I was MC at the Budokai remember? I know you can kick some serious ass Negi-sensei. And I bet at least Asuna will come along with you and she's not too shabby either. So what do you say?"

The boy frowned. "I don't think so, Kazumi. We still don't know what's going on and if I brought you I wouldn't be sure how to protect you if anything were to happen." He paused as a thought came to him and the continued. "But I promise if we find anything out there that I'll give you an exclusive."

Kazumi arched a delicate eyebrow. "Exclusive you say?" She seemed to mull it over for a moment before she grinned. "Alright, Negi-sensei. I'll be looking forward to your report later." She winked playfully. "Don't hesitate to call on me when you get back, no matter how late it might be." She bumped her hip against his to emphasize the point.

Negi blushed brightly under Kazumi's teasing and found himself reconsidering the idea of holding a special lesson on sexual harassment in his class. She noticed his blushing and laughed fondly, giving his head a brief, affectionate pat before she scampered away and back into the commons.

The young mage sighed as he watched Kazumi depart and finally began his trek upstairs. As he moved up the steps, he found his embarrassment at her teasing replaced by the desire to go out there and investigate this building. He had a gut feeling that whatever was in that building had a connection to what was going on somehow and he wanted to get out there as soon as possible.

When he reached the level that held his, Asuna and Konoka's dorm he was moving at a brisk pace, the fire of wanting to investigate the building putting speed into his steps. He reached the door and wrenched it open, stepping into the room and calling out to his dorm mates, "Asuna! Konoka! Set-"

Negi saw only the briefest glimpse of pink and white fabric, smooth pale flesh and the three girls in question in various states of undress before a thundering figure that was all orange ponytails and bulging eyes filled his vision.

"Negi-bozu!" Asuna roared.

The boy teacher stammered an apology before he gave a small cry of fright and pulled the door shut just as something heavy thudded against it from the other side. He flinched away from the door and was just about to step away when the door flew open again. He didn't have time to make out anything beyond before a small object collided with his chest.

"And have your little pervert pet wait outside with you!"

Negi fumbled to catch the sprawling white form of the ermine fairy that had collided with him. Albert Chamomile (Chamo-kun for short) hung limply in Negi's hands. The boy brought the small creature up to his face, his eyes wide with worry.

"Chamo-kun! Speak to me!"

The small figure stirred in his hands, a quiet murmur leaving his lips before the ermine shook himself awake and looked at Negi with his black eyes. "Aniki! Oh the last thing I remembered was hurtling down a tunnel towards a white light!"

"Ah, I think that was you being thrown out of the room, Chamo-kun." Negi grinned and lifted his familiar to place him on his shoulder. The mustelid perched on his shoulder and looked back towards the closed door.

"Oh that's right! I remember now." Chamo's black-tipped tail began to swish back and forth mischievously. "Oh, Aniki you should've seen it!" He chuckled. "I never would've imagined that Setsuna-anesan would wear such cute panties."

Negi sighed heavily, "I should've known. Asuna was right to throw you out."

"Aniki, how can you be so cruel?" Chamo asked as he looked up at Negi with big dewy eyes. The expression soon passed however and the ermine folded his small arms over his front. "But I was pretty lucky tonight. Usually one of them locks me up in a drawer or something while they change but they seemed to be preoccupied. Is something up, Aniki?"

Negi considered how much to share with his familiar for a moment before he simply settled on. "Some strange things happened today, Chamo-kun. And I mean _strange._ When they finish changing I'm going to change too and check something out."

"Just you?" Chamo tilted his head curiously.

"Well it might be dangerous and I don't want to involve anyone else unnecessarily." Negi murmured, glancing down at his feet. A heavy sigh from the ermine drew his eyes upwards again.

Chamo had somehow produced one of his chocolate cigarettes. He drew a long "puff" off it before he cradled his head in one hand. "Ah, Aniki. Don't you get that these chicks really dig you? Not to mention that all three of the hotties in there are your pactio partners." The ermine took another puff before holding the cigarette in one paw. "You really think they'd let you run off to investigate something by yourself?" He scoffed.

"I just won't tell them then." Negi countered.

"Aniki, don't take this the wrong way but you're a horrible liar." The ermine grinned. "But that's a good quality actually. Chicks love an honest man. Of course it could be a problem if you decide you want to play the field…"

Negi blushed. "I'd do no such thing! A proper gentleman would never 'play the field.'"

"And here I thought you wanted to follow in your father's footsteps." The ermine sighed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Negi asked. "Don't tell me that you think he was called the 'Thousand Master' because he had a thousand girls!"

"Ah, the innocence of youth. Well, anyway, how are you going to go about this, Aniki?"

Before Negi could answer the door to the room swung open and Asuna stood in the doorway, one fist planted on her hip while the other rested on the doorjamb. Even though the brunt of her glower was reserved for the mustelid perched on his shoulder, he still felt himself almost shrinking under her blue and green eyes.

"The pervert duo may enter." She intoned and then stepped to one side. She had changed into a pale green t-shirt and a knee length skirt. The other girls had similarly dressed into fare that was more casual: Konoka in a bright yellow t-shirt and jeans. Setsuna was sitting on the couch to one side of the room, _Yuunagi_ lay across her thighs and the girl was wiping down the dark wood of the scabbard with cheesecloth. The fact that she could still make a white shirt and shorts look like a uniform spoke volumes about the professional demeanor she exuded.

"Is it perverted for a young man to have a healthy interest in the female body?" Chamo asked as he looked up at Asuna, his black-tipped tail twitching back and forth across Negi's shoulders.

"You're not a young man." Asuna pointed out. "You're a dirty old man, er, rodent or whatever." She waved a dismissive hand. "So it's obvious that you don't count pervin' ermine."

"What did Kazumi-chan want, Negi-sensei?" Konoka asked.

"Well that's something I want to discuss with all of you." Negi began, removing the staff from his back and leaning it against the wall. "She told me that she had run into something earlier today that frightened her badly. I think it may have something to do with what's happened to Satomi and I'm determined to investigate it myself."

He looked to each of the girls in the room; he could feel all of their eyes on him as they waited. "I'm not asking any of you to come with me, this could be dangerous, but if you want to come…"

Asuna balled up her fist and lightly tapped him on the top of the head. "Geez, Negi-bozu after all we've been through you still think you need to behave like this?" She grinned and folded her arms over her front. "I can't speak for Konoka or Setsuna but I'll come with you. If it can help us find Satomi then I'm game."

"If you're looking for Hakase-chan I want to come too." Konoka stood up. "If she's hurt I want to be there to heal her." The young white mage smiled.

Even as Konoka stood up to make her case Negi saw, with no real surprise, Setsuna rising from the couch as well, her posture straight and her expression serious. The sword girl held her blade in one hand while the other folded over her stomach. "If Ojousama is going with you then I go."

Konoka looked across to her friend and guardian and put her hands on her hips. "Secchan, I told you to please call me Kono-chan. We aren't even in school anymore so you can be a little more relaxed can't you?"

Setsuna blushed, her eyes briefly casting towards the ground before she nodded. "O-Of course, Kono-chan." She looked back to Negi. "And it's not just a matter for Oj-- I mean Kono-chan."

"Are you sure everyone? The dean told us to stay out of it so if we get caught it won't just be me getting in trouble but all of you as well." When he saw the girls nod, he heaved a soft sigh. "Thank you everyone. Satomi will be so happy to see that everyone is working so hard to find her."

Negi reached up to begin loosening his tie. "I'm going to get changed myself before we go out to investigate that old clock tower." He got the knot of the tie undone when he paused and looked around to see his students still standing around. "Would you mind giving me some privacy, please?"

Asuna grinned, "What's wrong, Negi-bozu? It's not like you don't have anything we haven't seen before."

He frowned but his cheeks still burned brightly with a blush. "That's not the issue here."

"Yeah, Asuna-anesan! That's quite a double standard you've got there!" Chamo spoke up from his shoulder.

"I think we should respect Negi-sensei's privacy." Setsuna spoke up. "And that is a double standard, Asuna." The sword girl offered a rare smile. "Negi-sensei could say the same thing about all of us but you wouldn't think that'd be a valid excuse for him to hang around while we changed would you?"

Asuna grimaced. "Well, no I guess I wouldn't." She sighed and rustled Negi's hair as she walked past him. "Well hurry up and get changed, Negi-bozu. We'll wait for you down in the commons." Konoka and Setsuna quickly followed the orange-haired girl out.

"Asuna-anesan seemed awfully keen on staying in here, Aniki. Maybe ever since you--"

"Don't even bring that up." Negi murmured with a blush, remembering the incident that happened between them during the Mahora Festival. He immediately began to focus on getting out of his suit and into clothes that were more suited for what lay ahead. He settled on a pair of canvas shorts and sneakers. A short-sleeved button-up shirt came next and a dark hoodie over that, the hood currently pulled down so that Chamo could ride around in the small pocket it created.

Finishing, he snatched up his staff and left the dorm room, making his way back down into the commons. He spotted Asuna and the others immediately, occupying a table near the entrance and talking among themselves. Setsuna spotted him first and said something to the others who turned to look at him and got up from their seats.

"Ready everyone?" When they all nodded, he smiled. "Well let's get going. "


	6. The First Night: The Clock Tower

**The First Night:**

**The Clock Tower**

They departed the dorms together and made their way to the nearest stop for the tram that would take them to their ultimate destination. Stepping out into the night air Negi almost wished he had chosen to wear pants instead of shorts. While the lingering heat of summer still ruled the day, the cool winds that came with the night heralded the quick approach of autumn. The moon had become visible during their time in the dorms; the pale shape was wide and gibbous, not quite full.

_Master will be at her full power again in a few days_, Negi thought to himself. Had she been contacted to patrol the campus tonight? He hadn't seen Mana in the commons back at the dorms either. They had probably been tapped by the dean to help patrol the campus. He hoped he didn't run into either one of them while they were out. It would be embarrassing to be caught and reprimanded by one of his students.

"Setsuna, you have experience in exorcism, right?" Asuna spoke up as she walked beside her classmate. She turned her head to fix the girl with her blue and green eyes.

"I don't have a lot but, yes, I've done such things before. It was part of my training." Setsuna replied. She hefted the cloth-covered scabbard of _Yuunagi_ against her back. "What did you wish to know?"

"Well I was just wondering if anything we've seen or heard about today reminds you of something you've dealt with before."

The sword girl was quiet for a few moments, silently pondering the question before she answered. "Some of it is familiar. People seeing things, hearing sounds or voices, but other elements are completely new to me. Usually these kinds of things are restricted to very specific locations but this seems to be happening at many different parts of the campus at once. Also," She paused for a moment, her lips tugging downward into a frown. "I've never encountered a case where people actually seemed to disappear without a trace." She heaved a quiet sigh. "It's unsettling."

"That's not exactly encouraging, Setsuna." Asuna grumbled.

"I'm glad Setsuna was honest with us." Negi said. He clutched his staff in one hand; the light tapping of the wood against the cement as he walked with it had provided a steady ambiance for their conversation. "It just reinforces the fact that we have to be careful since we're not sure what we're dealing with. Setsuna has spent her entire life learning how to look for threats and guard against them. I trust her judgment."

The sword girl ducked her head a little but Negi could catch a glimpse of a small, grateful smile on her features within the shadow. Konoka grinned and moved up alongside Setsuna and whispered something in her ear, making the girl blush brightly and stammer before Konoka simply laughed and hugged her bodyguard and friend. The embarrassed glance Setsuna cast in his direction made him wonder exactly what Konoka had whispered to the girl.

They arrived at the tram stop just in time for its arrival. They piled onto the vehicle and made their way towards the back of the car, the lack of other riders afforded them the chance to sit together. As the tram left the stop Negi felt the sense of ease that had been with them since they had arrived at the dorms begin to dissipate. The conversation between them slowed before it stopped altogether, the teacher and his students sat in silence, listening to the rhythmic sounds of the vehicle as it moved through the campus town and towards the old building Kazumi had told him about.

Negi glanced out the windows of the tram and the darkness of the night beyond seemed to full of foreboding. He knew it was nonsense; the setting colored by all that they had seen that day and what they were setting out to do, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the shadows between the streetlights and storefronts seemed darker than they should've been. As they traveled further away from the center of the campus town, and the spaces between the lights grew, he felt his body tensing during those dark patches before relaxing just a touch whenever the tram passed under a radiant pool of electric light, only to feel the tension return when the darkness came.

The young wizard grimaced. This was ridiculous. If he was getting this wound up now how bad would he be when they actually reached their destination? Everybody was counting on him to keep it together and he'd be damned if he was the one that lost his cool before they even got to the building.

The tram began to slow and he realized with a start that they had already reached their stop. He clutched his staff in one hand and pulled himself up from his seat, Asuna and the others standing with him and following him out and onto the sidewalk. They were the only departures for the stop and the car pulled away, leaving them alone. Negi looked ahead, eyes narrowing through the lenses of his glasses before he spotted the dark, jutting shape of the clock tower up ahead, looming over the tree line.

"Mou, did it have to be so damn creepy?" Asuna grumbled.

"It's a fitting lair for a demon." Setsuna stated bluntly. "If there's a chance it holds any clues about what's happened to Hakase-san then I don't care how creepy-looking it is."

"Let's go everyone." Negi stepped off the sidewalk and onto the small path that wound into the trees. "Every moment we spend here is one less we could use to put an end to this before anyone else gets hurt."

He heard the girls step onto the path behind him and their proximity helped ease some of the fear he had been experiencing. Not for the first time, he felt blessed to have such gifted students and friends. He felt a stirring between his shoulder blades as Chamo crawled out of the unused hood and perched himself on Negi's shoulders. He could see the ermine fairy out of the corner of his eye; the familiar's shining eyes were in constant movement, looking up into the trees and on either side of the path into the underbrush.

Negi kept his eyes focused forward; the squat shape of the building adjoining the clock tower was slowly materializing out of the darkness, as they grew closer. The silvery moonlight overhead gave the structure a strange luminescence that seemed almost otherworldly. The glow failed to illuminate the darkness that filled the pair of windows that faced Negi and his students, however. For a moment, they seemed to resemble a pair of empty eye sockets to the young teacher and he had to suppress a shiver.

"Now what?" Konoka whispered behind him.

Negi wasn't sure how to answer, much to his chagrin. He was about to suggest they take a moment to plan their approach when Asuna stepped forward ahead of the group, pulling a small object from the pocket of her skirt. It only took him a moment to recognize it as a copy of the Pactio card he had made with Asuna. It took him another second to realize what the girl was going to do but he was too late to stop her.

Asuna held the card out away from her and called out, "_Adeat_!" There was a flash of light, a gust of wind swirled around the girl, and suddenly the card was gone, replaced by a gigantic blade that was nearly as long as Asuna was tall. Despite its large size the girl held the sword easily in one hand, the sharpened edge of the blade turned away from her. The cutting edge of the sword ran from the tip all the way down over the guard that curled over one side of the handle. A length of cloth dangled from a ring at the end of the pommel, the name of the artifact written upon it: _Ensis Exorcizans_.

The orange-haired girl gripped her artifact with both hands and began to make a beeline towards the building, the sword held to one side, the tip angling down towards the ground. Negi heard Setsuna hiss in disapproval but soon she was running after her classmate, _Yuunagi_ shifted from her shoulder and now bounced at the ready position on her hip. One hand held the scabbard while the other hovered over the handle, ready to draw it at a moment's notice.

Negi growled in frustration and was soon hurrying after them. He heard Konoka call out after Asuna and Setsuna, surprise and consternation underlying her words before he heard her begin to hurry after him. Asuna's orange pigtails trailed behind her like ribbons as she reached the door that lead into the building. She gave a small cry and launched herself at it, one leg extended. Negi wasn't surprised when he heard the door give under her attack with a splintering crack. The girl had always been much stronger than she looked.

"Leave it to Asuna-anesan to make a grand entrance!" Chamo yelled into his ear.

Negi only grunted in response, his eyes widening when he saw Asuna barrel into the building through the shattered portal. He raised his staff while on the move and channeled his will into it. A ball of golden light the size of a volleyball formed over the crooked tip of his staff and with a shove he sent it flying forward and through one of the open windows into the darkness beyond. The inside was illuminated immediately and he could see Asuna raising one arm to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness, her other arm held her blade in front of her, the edge turned out towards any possible threat.

Setsuna arrived shortly after the orange-haired girl. Unlike Asuna, she closed only one eye to keep the light from blinding her. Setsuna drew herself up just behind and to the side of Asuna, her body poised gracefully, ready to draw her blade or leap out of the reach of Asuna's own weapon if she began to swing.

"Asuna!" Negi called out as he reached the shattered threshold of the building, the wooden door barely hanging from its frame. "What do you think you're doing?! You could get yourself killed just busting in here like that!"

She whipped her head around to look at him over her shoulder, her eyes shining in the bright light cast by the globe that hovered near the ceiling. "Weren't you the one that said every moment we waited was one less we could use to put a stop to this? Excuse me for showing a little initiative, Negi-bozu!"

"While I think we can all appreciate your enthusiasm, Asuna," Setsuna grumbled. "Negi-sensei has a point. We only have the vaguest idea of what's going on here and rushing in could not only get you hurt but Hakase-san as well if she's in the grasp of this thing."

"Well maybe a frontal assault would be the last thing it's expecting." Asuna countered. "It could've been spying on us while we hung around outside trying to hatch some complicated plan. Besides, the more complicated it was the more chance something could go wrong. So simpler is better." She gave a firm nod as if that ended the discussion.

"Asuna-chan, you should at least have told the rest of us first." Konoka scolded. "I'm sure I could've healed you if something had gone wrong but I'd rather we do this without any of us getting hurt."

The orange-haired girl sighed, "Oh all right." She then turned her attention back to the interior of the building. "It looks like nothing's at home anyway…" She muttered.

Negi stepped up by her side and got his first real look at the inside of the building. It was about the size of a large classroom, with the only windows being the ones that were facing them when they came out of the woods.

Upon closer inspection, Negi believed that the structure actually had been a school building of some kind or another. Detritus was strewn about the floor; the crumbling remains of what he took to be books of some kind lay in a defeated heap on a bookshelf that leaned against the wall opposite the windows. The young wizard could almost make out bright colors and muted designs beneath the thick layers of dust that caked the walls. That, along with the small size of the desks and chairs, made Negi believe this may have been a class set up for kindergarteners. Or, perhaps, some of the younger children in grammar school.

The golden light cast by the globe overhead gave the illusion that this abandoned schoolroom was filled with the light of early morning. Young schoolchildren would be filing in and taking their seats, facing the large desk and chalkboard that took up most of the far wall. Another wooden door filled a portal there, the door itself slightly ajar and revealing only shadows beyond.

_That probably leads to the clock tower, _Negi thought to himself. As he continued to take in the details of the room, Asuna took a few more steps into the interior, angling down a narrow aisle between desks. A dull crunching sound rose from the ground on her last step and he heard her mutter something before the girl gave a sudden hiss of disgust and stumbled backwards.

"What is it, Asuna?" He looked down to see what had surprised her and felt his own throat tighten.

What Negi had at first taken to be stray bits of garbage or broken pieces of furniture wasn't garbage at all.

They were bones.

They weren't the nice and clean bleached white color you saw in movies or on television. Even in the golden hue of the light Negi could see that many of these bones were still colored red. Now that he was looking for them, Negi saw the bones were everywhere. They lay scattered across the floor, some of them piled in small pyramids, and others cast about with no rhyme or reason. Some desks even had bones resting on them like macabre school tools. Feathers and bits of fur had their place among the bones, more evidence of the feasting--_**The Feast**_--that had taken place in this building.

"Are…Are these…?" Asuna looked back towards Negi and the others, her eyes wide.

"Yes they're bones but they're not big enough to be human." Setsuna reassured her. The sword girl stepped forward and knelt down to look at the remnants more closely. "Most of these look to be from small animals or birds."

"Small animals, huh?" Asuna looked back towards Negi, or more specifically, the ermine perched on his shoulder. "Anybody here that you'd know, pervin' ermine?"

"That isn't funny Asuna-anesan!" Chamo bristled at the girl. Negi winced when he felt his familiar's small claws dig briefly into his shoulder.

"He's right, Asuna-chan. That wasn't really funny." Konoka murmured. She reached out to stroke a consoling hand over the quivering form of the white-furred mustelid. He immediately grew tense before relaxing.

"Ah, Konoka-anesan is so understanding." He murmured and leapt off Negi's shoulder and into the young white mage's arms. She smiled softly and cuddled the now very happy ermine against her bosom.

"How did this thing get on campus? " Asuna asked. "Don't we have security systems or something to prevent things like this from just wandering in? "

"Graf Herrman was able to enter with no problems, Asuna-chan." Konoka murmured as she continued to pet the very pleased Chamo.

"Ugh, don't remind me." The orange-hair girl grimaced. She was probably remembering the outfit the demon dressed her up in as bait for Negi.

Negi stepped up to Setsuna's side, ignoring the huffing Asuna for a moment. "Do demons do things like this, Setsuna? I mean…" He gestured around the room with his free hand. He spied a narrow red bone on a nearby desktop and grimaced. A series of uneven gouges marred the surface of the bone along its length. Teeth marks? "I thought demons were mostly spiritual creatures?"

"Some are." She reached out and nudged a small bone with a pen she had retrieved from her pocket. Her young features twisted into a grimace when the bone revealed a bit of muscle and tendon still clinging to its underside. "But some are physical in nature and are known to be ravenous flesh eaters."

She looked back up around the room and then shivered. "Asakura-san was lucky. Something was definitely here earlier tonight. If the day had been any later when she arrived it might have taken her."

Negi felt a little ball of ice form in his stomach. Just how close had Kazumi come to disappearing as well?

"If this thing took Satomi last night…" Negi felt his throat begin to go dry. "Then does that mean--"

"Don't." Asuna's voice came to him. Strong and defiant. "Don't even think about it, Negi-bozu."

Nevertheless, the stillness in Setsuna and Konoka told Negi that he wasn't the only one that was thinking it. A slight tremble in Asuna's figure told him that even she was thinking it despite her own words. They had all seen those images that morning. A pale, broken figure torn apart and feasted upon by a pair of strange figures in a grotesque parody of a dinner setting.

"Right." Negi murmured and began to look around the room again, determined to find any more clues as to what they were dealing with. Aside from the scraps of the thing's repast, he began to notice that the dust on the floor had been disturbed in quite a few places. He moved up and down the length of the room, looking down every row of desks as he came to them, and saw that there didn't seem to be a place where the dust hadn't been disturbed. Unfortunately, that also meant that there wasn't enough dust left on the ground to leave any indication of what they were dealing with.

Asuna and Setsuna had been slowly moving their way down the classroom at opposite ends while he had been looking down the rows of seats, both of their weapons within easy reach. Asuna reached the other end of the room first and motioned for the others to approach.

"I smell something." She stated and then fixed Chamo with a steely gaze as if daring him to make some kind of quip before continuing. "It's coming through that door, I think." She indicated the slightly open door.

Now that Negi had reached the far end of the classroom, he smelt it too. A musty smell reminded him of dank places and had a stale quality to it. Asuna started to edge towards the doorway, her back pressed against the wall and her blade held out to one side.

"Wait." Setsuna spoke. Asuna paused as the sword girl reached to a small fanny pack that was belted near the small of her back. She unzipped it and withdrew a small jar with stopped with a cork and a slender writing brush. Next, she retrieved a small, carefully rolled up piece of paper that was revealed as an ofuda, or paper golem.

Setsuna laid the humanoid-shaped paper talisman on a desktop and then proceeded to write her name carefully upon the doll with the ink and brush. Once she finished and put the writing implements away, she lifted the paper doll carefully between her fingers and closed her eyes to concentrate, her chi flowing into it.

There was a puff of smoke and suddenly there stood a miniature version of Setsuna within the girl's palm. The chibi version of the sword girl looked around for a moment before looking up at the large version of her and promptly came to attention. "Hey there, boss!" Chibi Setsuna hailed in a much higher pitched version of Setsuna's own voice. "What can I do ya for?"

Setsuna nodded towards the slightly open door. "Explore the area beyond that door. If you encounter anything unusual at all report it to us immediately." She paused, as something seemed to occur to her and added, "Limit your search to within the threshold of this structure. If you encounter any passageways leading elsewhere inform us of them as well."

Chibi Setsuna snapped a smart salute. "Aye aye, boss!" She squeaked and then promptly lifted from Setsuna's palm and zipped into the darkness visible in the cracked door. Watching the paper golem depart, Negi couldn't help but notice all the differences between Setsuna herself and her own facsimile.

"Well that could've come in handy earlier." Asuna grumbled. "Why didn't you do that when we first came here?"

"I don't know. Perhaps it was the full frontal assault you implemented that made the need for reconnaissance unnecessary." Setsuna sniffed and picked her _Yuunagi_ from where she had laid it against a nearby desk so she could prepare the _ofuda_.

"Chibi Secchan is so cute." Konoka grinned. "Sometimes I wonder if she's a representation of Secchan's real personality."

Setsuna grimaced and Negi felt himself smiling just a little. "I don't really think Setsuna would see that as much of a compliment."

"Is she going to be okay in there?" Asuna jerked her head towards the doorway. "I mean, what if something happens to her?"

"If something happens to her I'll be able to tell." Setsuna answered. "And then we'll know for certain whether or not the demon has moved on or not."

They didn't have to wait long. Within a few minutes, the paper golem zipped back through the doorway and into the classroom. "Back and ready to report, boss!" She snapped to attention in mid-air before continuing. "I couldn't find anything unusual in the tower except a whole lot of dust bunnies and cobwebs. Ick! There's a passage in the floor in the other room that leads down into a cellar of some kind. Now down there I found something interesting."

Chibi Setsuna grinned broadly and waggled her eyebrows. "It looks like a hole was tore into one of the walls down there and it leads into an adjacent tunnel of some kind. But I didn't go into it!" She raised her small hands up and outwards as if to ward off any incoming reprimands. "Just like you said! I stayed put right here within this building." She folded her arms over her chest and gave a little nod of satisfaction.

"Good work, Chibi Setsuna." Negi commended the golem. He stepped towards the portal and pushed the door all the way open. It didn't creak on its hinges as he expected, making him think it'd seen some use recently. He gestured his staff towards the globe that still hung near the classroom's ceiling and made a slow gesture. The golden globe began to split down the middle and soon he had created an exact duplicate. He guided this new sphere through the open door and into the space beyond.

This room illuminated by the light was much smaller than the classroom from which they had came. A staircase wound its way up the walls towards a platform that supported a ladder that went up into a small opening beyond the wooden ceiling and into the workings of the clock tower itself. But what really interested him was a square opening in one corner of the tower beneath the staircase.

A wooden trapdoor had been moved into its upward position, revealing a patch of darkness into which a metal ladder descended. Negi approached the opening and stood on the edge, peering down into the darkness. An absent gesture of the staff drew the globe of light overhead to direct its rays into the shadows, banishing them from sight and revealing an earthen floor at the base of the ladder. Stepping closer, he took in a small breath and had no doubt that the musty smell was emanating from the cellar.

He heard movement behind him and glanced back to see Asuna had moved into the room after him and Setsuna not long after. Konoka and Chamo stood in the doorway leading back to the classroom, looking on curiously. Chibi Setsuna, meanwhile, was flying in lazy circles overhead in the tower, eyeing the globe of light with an open and pleased expression on her tiny face.

"I'm going to go down and take a quick look around." Negi announced, sitting on the edge of the opening he scooted forward until he dropped down onto the floor of the cellar. He grunted at the landing, his hand still clutching his staff with one hand. The light from above didn't reach much beyond the perimeter of the square and he willed another, smaller globe to form at the end of his staff.

He focused the light into a directed beam, giving himself an impromptu flashlight. He swept the beam around the dark room, shadows danced on the walls as shelves and their long-forgotten contents were illuminated. Then the light showed him the jagged edges in an otherwise smooth stonewall and he found the opening that Chibi Setsuna had discovered.

He took a few steps towards the opening, his staff angled towards it, not only to keep the light on the opening but also so he could cast a spell in its direction of he needed to. There was the sound of something landing on the ground behind him and a quick glance showed him that Asuna had joined him in the cellar, the length of her artifact held across her front. The girl grinned at him and he couldn't help but offer her one in turn.

He had to admit; despite the initial fear, he had felt he was beginning to feel a strange sort of excitement. Being able to use his abilities to help people as his father did reminded him of the reason he had chosen to become a mage in the first place.

Turning his attention back to the opening he took another step towards it and angled the light within. He could barely make out what he thought to be another wall further in. Its surface was a little uneven but looked more like an artificial tunnel than a natural one. Sweeping the beam from side to side, he saw that it continued out of sight in either direction, a discovery that didn't surprise the young wizard. There were literally miles of tunnels and passageways, both natural and manmade, beneath the whole Mahora campus.

"Did that thing make this hole or was it already here?" Asuna pondered as she looked over Negi's shoulder and into the dark tunnel beyond.

Negi shook his head. "I don't know. We aren't even sure if it left the building through here or not." The boy sighed in frustration and hung his head before he saw something hanging from a splinter of wood near the floor. He knelt and reached out for the fluttering patch of white cloth that had been snagged upon the jagged wood.

"Asuna!" He straightened and turned to show her the piece of cloth. The orange-haired girl was inspecting it with wide eyes when he noticed a shadow fall on the light that still came through the opening.

"What is it?" Setsuna's voice came from above.

Negi approached the base of the ladder, slung his staff against his back, and went up a few rungs to hand the cloth over to Setsuna. She straightened to study it in the light above while Negi began to climb back up to join her. "I think it's from Satomi's lab coat. It means she could still be all right."

Setsuna studied the cloth between her fingers for a few more moments, her lips pulled into a thoughtful frown. "It looks like the same material." She admitted. "Where did you find it?"

"It was snagged on a piece of wood in the entrance to that tunnel." Asuna had climbed out of the cellar as well and stood behind Negi. She hefted the blade and rested it against her shoulder. "I…couldn't find any more bones down there. So she's in one piece anyway." The girl's voice grew quiet but remained steady. "If Satomi is down there in the tunnels somewhere we should go in and find her."

"I agree." Negi's answer surprised himself. But the more he thought on it the more he realized there was no way he could turn back now that there seemed to be a little more evidence that Satomi was being held captive by some wicked creature.

"What?" Setsuna's eyes were wide, her tone bordering on the incredulous. "I agree that if Hakase-san is still alive we can't abandon her but I don't think we should go ourselves. It's time we contacted the dean and let him know about our findings."

"Why don't you want to go and help her, Secchan?" Konoka asked. She was still standing in the doorway between the tower and classroom. "If she's hurt right now then she needs our help. Especially mine!"

"It's not that I don't want to help her, Kono-chan." Setsuna murmured. "But the tunnels beneath the campus are like a labyrinth and they can be dangerous enough on their own without having to worry about rampaging demons."

"All the more reason for us to go down there now and look for her." Asuna countered. "This thing was here until only a few hours ago. We could catch up with them quick if we leave now and move fast."

"Did you ever think that maybe this is some kind of trap?" Setsuna fixed Asuna with a stare. "It could be leaving scraps and clues like bread crumbs, luring us into an ambush. I told you these tunnels are dangerous enough as it is. My first priority is the safety of Kono-chan. I won't bring her into this kind of situation."

"Don't you care that Satomi might be hurt too?" Negi tried hard to keep the sudden hurt out of his voice. He knew Setsuna had been trained since her childhood to be a bodyguard but he had never seen her quite this adamant about it before.

"Of course I do." Negi saw the same hurt he felt reflected in the sword girl's brown eyes. "But my duty is to Ojousama first and foremost." Setsuna didn't seem to notice she had slipped back into her more formal addressing of Konoka.

"Secchan…" Konoka murmured. Her cheeks darkened but at the same time, her eyes began to shimmer. "That's just your training talking." She turned away for a moment, looking back into the classroom. "The Secchan that's my friend would do her best to help her friends, no matter who they are."

Setsuna looked almost as if she'd been slapped in the face. Her eyes widened as she stared at Konoka's back and she looked back to the floor in shame. Negi and Asuna stood there for a few long and awkward moments of silence before Negi decided to attempt to smooth things out.

"Setsuna," He stepped towards her. "Go ahead and take Konoka back to the dorms. Asuna and I will go down by ourselves. The safety of all my students means so much to me so I can understand how you feel about Konoka." He reached out to place a hand gently on her shoulder. "You're a very good girl to care so much, Setsuna."

She blinked once and looked back up at Negi. "Negi-sensei…" She straightened and reached up to place her hand over his. She smiled. "I will take Ojousama back. But then I'm coming to join you and Asuna."

"Negi-kun…" Konoka murmured from the doorway.

Negi started to turn and look at her when Asuna draped her arms around the shoulders of both him and Setsuna. "Well now that we got all that lovey-dovey business out of the way let's say you and me get started on that demon hunt, eh Negi?"

"Weeeee! Demon hunt!" Chibi Setsuna suddenly dived down from the ceiling and perched herself on the real Setsuna's head. "It sounds like fun! Is it like a scavenger hunt?"

Negi was grinning up at the playful little golem; even Setsuna's look of annoyance seemed to be quickly melting away when Chamo spoke up from the doorway.

"Ah, Aniki…" He sounded frightened.

Negi turned to see that both Chamo and Konoka were staring back out into the classroom. Negi frowned and moved to their side, a question on his lips when he looked beyond them and his heart leapt into his throat.


	7. The First Night: Patrolling

**Author's Note: Well after about a week and a half of not being able to write anything I hammered this chapter out in about two nights. It's a little shorter than most of my other chapters but I want to try and streamline things a little bit It's still only the first night and there's much more in store for this evening. That being said I'm not too sure if I'm really satisfied with how this chapter turned out. But I knew if I started over it'd probably take me two or more weeks to get to this point again so I said, 'What the hey?' **

**In case you missed it in the story summary: Beginning next chapter the story will go back to M rating. Just so you people know.**

**Also, I had a devil of a time figuring out Zazie's hair and eye color. I eventually settled with white hair and dark brown eyes but if you have some concrete information about what her manga incarnation's hair and eye color are please let me know. Thanks. **

**The First Night:**

**Patrolling**

Even in the deepening darkness the profile of the world tree was easy to make out in the sky.

The tree dominated the horizon, stretching its branches up and out into the starry sky, almost as if trying to reach the distant suns. And it was beneath this canopy that Takahata was making his rounds.

The teacher had his hands tucked into his pants pockets, an ever present cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. Though his business was serious his expression was relaxed and calm, even friendly. He would catch the eyes of passing students and give them a small nod and smile as he passed. Even so, he kept his attention focused on what was around him, probing the growing shadows and scanning the rooftops.

It could be anywhere. It could be anything.

In his years within the human world he'd never encountered anything quite like this. Of course there had been tales of vaguely malevolent paranormal forces at work in parts all over the world but he had chalked most of them up to overactive imaginations. This was the mortal world after all and not the magic world, where dangerous supernatural creatures were in abundance and stories of disappearances and worse were commonplace in some of the less tame regions.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been so hasty to dismiss those stories.

People went missing all the time, he mused, as he continued his stroll down a sidewalk that cut its way through the commercial district of the Mahora campus. Most of them probably went missing due to mundane, if still horrible, reasons. Kidnapping, abduction, runaways and even people just wishing to start their lives over could probably make up the greatest bulk of them.

But still…

People disappearing right out of their beds, people who go to take out the trash and disappear between the house and the curb. These things, and stranger, have all happened. And now it seems that they're beginning to happen right here on the Mahora campus. And one of those people who disappeared had been one of his students.

The thought brought a bitter taste to his mouth and the calm veneer of his features was momentarily disturbed by the ripples of shame and frustration.

They were Negi's students now but they had been his not so long ago. They had trusted him and he looked out for them. Out of the entire faculty he felt he could understand Negi's frustration the most.

_Please don't worry, Negi-kun, _he thought to himself as he took a long drag off of the cigarette. _I'll find Satomi-kun. _He paused in thought and then smiled just a little. _If you don't find her first._

He imagined the young boy was probably out right this moment carrying on his own investigation. If that was so he hoped Negi managed to keep from being detected by the others. As much as he sympathized with the boy he didn't want him to take any more chances than necessary, and it would especially break his heart if he was the one that found him and had to tell him to go back to the dorms.

Silently wishing the boy wizard luck if he did go out in search of his student, Takahata continued his patrolling of the street. Besides a few patrons attending the stores or sidewalk stands he saw nothing out of the ordinary. There didn't seem to be as many people out as there usually was but he could easily attribute that to the growing cold of the nights.

Could that be the only reason? Something tickled at the back of Takahata's mind, the sensation of something creeping along the back of his neck, not quite enough to draw his full attention but causing just enough of a distraction to hover on the edge of his thoughts.

He took one last drag off his cigarette and heaved a soft sigh, plucking the butt from between his lips and crushing the smoldering tip between the calloused pads of his thumb and forefinger before pitching it into a nearby trashcan. He removed a pack from an inside pocket of his jacket and shook out another one, lighting it and replacing the pack and then tucking his hands back into his pockets all in one smooth, much-practiced motion.

His route had taken him out of the shopping district and towards a small and verdant park that lay nestled between the businesses. He stepped onto the sinuous concrete path, following it as it wound its way over the grass and around a few trees and scattered bushes. The space was mostly clear, with benches lining the path at regular intervals and lamps never too far away to help keep the path lit.

Looking around the park he was again struck by the feeling that there was something amiss. There should've been more people out than there were.

The park wasn't completely deserted; he could see couples sharing a bench and a small group of chattering girls coming down the path towards, and then past, him without even sending a glance in his direction. Still it just seemed like there should have been _more_. The chill in the night wasn't bad enough yet to start deterring people from taking evening strolls, so what was?

_Maybe there are already rumors swirling about,_ he thought to himself. _People are hearing things. Seeing things. Some people have disappeared._

A part of him hoped that was all it was. If the students, and more mundane faculty, scared themselves out of moving around at night it'd make his job, and the others', much easier without having to worry about involving innocents. If it came down to a clash of powers with their possible trespasser things could get quite messy depending on its strength. And there was no festival going on now to easily explain the magic and abilities away as special effects.

The winding path had taken him to the center of the park, where a circular fountain acted as a hub for a number of other paths that spread off in other directions like the spokes of a wheel. The soft tinkling splash of the water as it gushed up into the night sky and then splashed back into the pool below created a soothing ambience to a silent scene. The fountain itself, a series of glittering arcs of water, was lit from beneath the water by a series of lamps set into the base of the outer ring of the pool.

Takahata stepped up to the side of the pool and allowed himself a small moment of relaxation, the sound of the water falling and the pleasing dazzle of the droplets as they caught the light acted as a salve for the his troubled thoughts if only for the moment. It was while he was looking down onto the rippling surface of the pool that he noticed the reflection of the girl.

He glanced back up and across the fountain at her, his eyebrows rising just a little. Had she been there the whole time? Or had she arrived while he was lost in the motions of the water? He silently chided himself for his lack of attention and was ready to continue on with his route when he noticed that there was something familiar about this girl.

The girls back faced him, and her head canted toward one side, as if she were listening to something far away. He strained his ears but he could hear nothing himself beyond the soft melody of the fountain water. Her alabaster hair hung just past her shoulder blades and her skin, what he could see of her arms and legs, held a deep tan that was quite distinguished among the usual paler skin tones on display. He body was very still and she made no sound at all.

Takahata slowly walked around the edge of the fountain towards the other side, his eyes never leaving the girl. As he rounded the side of it, he saw her face and the dark teardrop marking that formed beneath her left eye and the single, vertical slash that went through her right confirmed her identity as Zazie Rainyday.

Her eyes were narrowed as if in concentration and her face was turned up towards the night sky. Her lips moved slowly and deliberately though no sound emerged from them that Takahata could discern. He tried to read her motions but she didn't seem to be forming any kind of words that he knew of. The slow and relaxed motion of her lips reminded him of a lullaby for some reason. Perhaps she was remembering one from her youth.

"Zazie-kun?" He hailed the girl quietly, his expression still relaxed and friendly.

Her mouth stopped moving. Not all at once but the motions slowly came to a halt, like a song fading out. The deep brown irises of her eyes slowly shifted towards him and she met his eyes for a long moment that would have been awkward if it were anyone else. Eventually she turned to face him fully, her motions were slow and measured, and for a moment, she seemed almost as much a machine as Chachamaru.

That impression ended when she raised one hand and gave him a brief and friendly wave. Her expression remained impassive despite the familiar gesture and her eyes remained locked on his. There was no challenge or insolence within the action, the girl had always behaved this way for as long as Takahata could remember.

"Enjoying an evening stroll before the nights get too cold?" He asked, keeping his demeanor friendly and amicable.

The girl remained silent and still for another long beat before she gave a simple nod of her head.

Takahata returned her look for a few more moments and, despite his experience with Zazie, he was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable in the lingering silence. Finally, he decided it was time to continue with his patrol.

"Maybe you should get back to the dorms soon, Zazie-kun." He did his best to make it sound like an offhand remark and not a warning. There was no need to frighten the girl, indeed, if she could be frightened.

"I know," Zazie answered in a small and soft voice. "I don't want to be out much longer."

Takahata couldn't help but blink. In the years he'd known her that was probably the most he had ever heard her speak all at once. The girl was usually very taciturn and would only communicate with shakes or nods of her head and only spoke when it was necessary and even then, she wouldn't say more than she needed to.

"Hmmm, well I guess I'll be seeing you then." He smiled at the girl.

Zazie nodded and smiled back. It was a small thing and it didn't quite meet her deep brown eyes. She inclined her head just a little and then turned and walked away from him. Her arms were loose at her sides and there was a graceful lope to her walk, just like what one might expect to see in the movements of a talented acrobat.

He kept his eyes on Zazie as she slowly melted away into the night. Her figure was occasionally illuminated by the pools of light cast by the lamps along the park pathways as she departed but soon she had disappeared altogether. He made a silent note that the path she took was in the opposite direction of the dorms.

_Well, why should she head back right away? _He thought to himself. _Zazie-kun saw that video this morning so she knows what's going on._ Still the teacher couldn't shake a feeling of suspicion about her behavior and almost immediately felt a little ashamed of even suspecting one of his former students. Still, he knew next to nothing about her.

Briefly, he considered shadowing the girl and seeing where she might go but he dismissed it quickly. Following her would take him off his assigned patrol route and the idea of him stalking one of his own students did not set well with him no matter what the circumstances.

Turning away from the fountain and continuing along his path, he reached into his jacket pocket for his cell phone, dialing up Mana. She was patrolling in the area that Zazie was heading in so she would be able to keep an eye on the girl more easily than he would.

_I just want to make sure she stays out of trouble, _He thought to himself as he brought the phone to his ear.

It made a palatable excuse.


	8. The First Night: Frenzy

**Author's Note: Phew.**

**This chapter was a complete nightmare to write and I'd like to apologize for how long it took me to publish it. Thank you all for your patience.**

**My first attempt at writing the chapter was very unsatisfactory and I actually deleted it before starting all over again. Then, about halfway through, I noticed a continuity error that required me to go back and make some changes. I still cannot say I'm wholly satisfied with how this chapter came out but rather than make all of you wait another month I'd go ahead, post it, and get feedback from you.**

**Griping aside, I want to thank all of you for putting my story at over 1500 hits. Thank you very much, I appreciate your continued interest in my story and it's part of what keeps me going in writing this.**

**And, just in case you missed it, the rating of the story has changed to M and will remain there for the rest of the story. That doesn't mean there'll be gory things in every chapter, but you can expect some of the freakiness to go up a notch in the future. **

**Enjoy.**

**The First Night:**

**Frenzy**

When they brought in the grinning man, Oharu felt discomfort for the first time towards a patient.

This alone was enough to give Oharu pause. Having had an interest in nursing and care giving all of her life, she had never shied away from patients before. She had gained a reputation around the Mahora Hospital as the angel of mercy with the patience and empathy of a saint. No matter how gruesome an injury or volatile a psych patient, she never shied away.

She had been moving among the tables, gathering up the glasses of water the resident patients had just used to wash down their daily pills when a pair of orderlies walked the grinning man into the communal room.

From what she had gathered, the police had found him standing in the path of a tram on one of the streets. At first, the possibility was considered that he was suicidal but aside from the initial incident where he had been standing in the street, the grinning man had shown no signs of suicidal tendencies. Instead, he had continued to show signs of severe catatonia, his wide grin and staring eyes notwithstanding.

The grinning man's name was Watanabe Shiro, and while the police attempted to track down his family, he was being put into the hospital's care, rather than put him in a holding cell with delinquents.

"How long is Watanabe-san going to be here with us?" Oharu asked, giving the grinning patient a brief once over. He had been dressed into a patient's garb; a short-sleeved white light cotton pullover shirt and a pair of white cotton drawstring pants with simple slippers on his feet. The man continued to stare straight ahead, not seeming to notice anything that was going on around him. Only the slight rise and fall of his chest and the occasional blink kept him from looking like some grimly humorous mannequin.

Before either of the orderlies could answer the electrical lights overhead gave a brief and fitful flicker. Oharu frowned thoughtfully up at the fluorescents. For the past day or so most of the electrical equipment had been acting strange. Wasn't the campus staff doing anything about it?

"He'll probably only be here a few hours." One of the men, Jun, answered. "The police tried to get in touch with his family by phone but couldn't get in contact with anyone. They're going to send a man out to his home since he lives here in the campus city but they said something about being swamped with reports of prowlers and disturbances so it might take a while before they can get around to it. In the meantime they had us take him in for observation."

"Are they certain they can't hold him until then?" Oharu asked. She felt surprise as soon as the words left her mouth. She'd never shown any reluctance in wanting to help someone or look after them before. She felt a brief surge of guilt and tried to mask it with a small and strained smile. Her surprise was reflected on the faces of the orderlies, who shared a brief look between them before one answered.

"Yeah, Oharu. Besides, the doctors on duty already gave him an examination and agreed that we can hold him for observation." Jun paused and then gave the grinning Shiro a troubled look. "Don't worry," he added, as if sympathizing with her discomfort. "It'll only be for a few hours. Maybe not even that long."

The other orderly, Abe, walked the grinning man towards one of the tables and carefully set him down in a chair. One of the other patients looked up from their book and fixed the grinning man with a curious stare. Before Oharu's eyes, their expression changed from bright curiosity into a mask of sorrow. Tears welled up in their eyes and their hands rose, almost feebly, in an attempt to shield their eyes from the grinning man's countenance. The patient let out a small and whimpery cry, tears streaming down their cheeks and dripping off their chin.

Oharu frowned and moved around the table to kneel by their side. The crying patient was Miki, a young woman who suffered from mild visual and auditory hallucinations. Placing a hand gently on the crying girl's shoulder she shushed. "Miki-chan, what's wrong?"

The girl gave a small shake of her head, hands still pressed tightly to her eyes. "No…no…no…" Her black hair hung limply around her face, her shoulders hunching up and flinching away from Oharu's touch.

Oharu looked up towards the grinning man and, though his expression hadn't changed and his eyes still held the quality of glass, there almost seemed to be something malicious in it now. She felt a tremor of fear and revulsion run through her, something deep inside of her wanted to cringe away from him the way one instinctively draws back from a snake or spider.

"Does she normally behave like that?" Abe indicated the weeping Miki. When Oharu shook her head, he glanced uneasily at the back of the grinning man's head and took a few steps away and began to wipe his hands on the thighs of his uniform before he caught himself and blushed, simply stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants and turning away.

After calming Miki and moving her towards another part of the common room, there were no more incidents. All of the other patients present seemed, almost instinctively, to stay away from the grinning man, Oharu felt ashamed that she kept thinking of him as that instead of by his name Shiro but it seemed more fitting. Even Sho, a garrulous recovering drug addict, steered well clear of the grinning man, quite surprising considering that Sho would even approach the comatose patients to engage them in long one-sided conversations.

Time passed and no one came for Shiro. The sun, which was already hanging low on the horizon when they had brought him in, had sunk out of sight, bringing night swiftly to the hospital grounds. The common room, while not exactly a bustle of commotion during normal times, now seemed very quiet. As she went about her duties, checking up on various patients she snuck glances at the grinning man as she moved about the room. And the more she looked at him the less it looked like he was grinning to her.

Instead, he seemed frozen in a moment of sheer terror. The moment right before you scream, when your eyes grow wide enough to show more whites than the irises, your lips wrinkled up as you draw in that breath before letting it out in that primal sound of fright.

"It's getting late." Oharu gave a brief start and looked over her shoulder as Jun stood by her side. He noticed her surprise and offered an apologetic smile before turning his attention back to the silent grinning man. "The police should've contacted us by now. If it gets any later we're going to have to put him up in a room when it's lights out."

She felt a surge of anxiety at the thought. "We don't have enough rooms to put him by himself." Oharu suppressed a small shiver. "If we have to put him in a room tonight we could put him with one of the chronics. He seems to upset everyone else too much…" _And me._ However, she kept that last part to herself.

Jun studied her for a moment before he murmured, "I've never seen you like this with a patient before, Oharu. He really bothers you too, huh?" Before she could protest, he shook his head. "No. Abe and I felt it too when we brought him in. There's nothing to feel ashamed of." He looked back towards the silent subject of their discussion. Even though they could only see the back of his head from this angle, his grinning visage still seemed clear in their mind's eye.

Another half hour passed and still neither the police nor the grinning man's family had come to inquire about him. With a resigned sigh, Oharu began to move around the room to help the rest of the patients put back books or toys they had been using. She approached Sho, who was enthusiastically informing a catatonic patient about his days as a rabble rousing delinquent, and knelt down to help the "listener" to their feet. "Not going to go have a chat with our guest, Sho?" She remarked teasingly.

The former addict grimaced, his already pinched features growing even sharper. "No way in hell, Oharu-chan. That guy is seriously fucked up. And I've met some fucked up people." He stroked his hands up and down his arms, pausing to scratch idly at the inside of his elbows. Oharu hadn't seen him do that since he was first admitted, just after he had gone through the worst period of withdraw. The fact he was doing it now showed that he was quite agitated indeed.

Oharu chided Sho quietly, even as she found herself agreeing with his opinion, much to her dismay. She walked the patient across the room towards the entrance where a nurse in the station buzzed the door to let the patient be lead out of the common room by Abe and down the corridor to the patient dormitories.

She turned back to the room to get another one of the catatonics when something she saw gave her pause: The grinning man was moving.

The motions were small and precise. If it hadn't been for his statue-like stillness for most of the night, the movements would've probably gone unnoticed otherwise. His head turned in one direction before it began to turn in the other. What made these actions strange, and filled Oharu's stomach with knots of growing dread, was that his head only turned in little jerks and tugs at a time. The herky-jerky motion reminded her of those old clockwork toys you would see in antique shops.

His eternal grin vanished for a moment, his lips closing over his teeth before drawing back once more, the teeth shining with a fresh coat of saliva. The muscles in his throat began to work, a vague and arrhythmic throb as if he were trying very hard to swallow but couldn't quite manage it.

"Yuko." Oharu whispered. She didn't look to her fellow nurse sitting within the box-like office, her eyes focused on the grinning man, but she could sense she had her attention. "Call Dr. Fukiyama."

"What is it, Oharu?"

The grinning man turned his head to one side, the gesture made Oharu think of that picture of the small dog listening to the record player. The muscles of his throat began to work again and, through his clenched teeth, she heard him begin to hum. The sound was tuneless and the cage of his teeth gave it a strange and discordant quality that made gooseflesh rise along her arms.

"Just call Dr. Fukiyama. Now." She insisted. She saw Jun across the room; the grinning man's humming had called his attention away from helping one of the patients put their books away. The orderly looked at the back of the grinning man's head and then looked over it to meet Oharu's eyes. Reading the anxiety there he began to step towards the strange patient, his posture held the appearance of relaxation but Oharu could see the readiness in his movements. Jun was ready to restrain the man within a moment's notice.

And a moment was about all the notice he was given.

The humming stopped almost as soon as it had started. The grinning man's jaw opened just a touch, a thin ribbon of saliva drawn across the space between his teeth. The pupils of his eyes, which had been fine pinpoints, suddenly expanded nearly obscuring his entire eyes, banishing the whites to the very edges. His chest rose with an intake of breath and a short, high scream split the calm of the room. The sound was frighteningly intense and Oharu found herself pressing the heels of her hands against her ears to ward off the piercing strength of the shout.

Everyone seemed stunned by outburst. Even Jun had frozen in his steps, his eyes wide as he visibly flinched from the force of the primal scream. The grinning man rocketed up out of his seat, coming to his feet in a rush. The chair he had been sitting in went skidding back behind him and his knees slammed hard against the table, making its top rattle viciously, the bolts connecting it to the floor were the only thing that kept it from being knocked onto its side.

The grinning man's hands flew up to his face, fingers going through his hair and clutching it in white-knuckled fists. He screamed again, his jaws opening wide to reveal the dark shadows within his mouth. This scream was longer than the first one but seemed to lack its strength; the sound still reverberated off the walls of the room, lending it a queasy choral quality.

Other patients were beginning to grow upset and added their own screams and wails to his own. Miki was cowering in a corner, holding a book up in front of her as if it were a shield. Sho was drawing himself up into his chair, perching on the edge of it with his feet. His eyes were wide, frightened and furious.

The second scream seemed to snap Jun out of the strange paralysis the first one had given him. He was moving quickly and his lean and powerful arms had wrapped themselves around the grinning man's body, forcing his own down so that his hands could now longer clutch at his hair or face. The grinning man gave a short shriek of protest and immediately began to writhe in the orderly's grasp. Oharu watched Jun's face darken with exertion, the muscles in his arms flexing and jumping at the strain of trying to keep the man still.

The buzz of the door made Oharu gasp in surprise and she turned to see Dr. Fukiyama striding into the room, flanked by Abe and another orderly whom Oharu didn't recognize.

"Help him." Dr. Fukiyama ordered. He was holding a thin syringe in one hand, popping the cap off the needle before he made a gesture towards Jun. The orderlies moved quickly and professionally. Abe grabbed one of the grinning man's arms, allowing Jun to shift his strength to the other. The grinning man was still shrieking in short and sharp barks, spittle flew from his mouth in thick clumps, strands of saliva dangled from the corners of his lips.

The nameless orderly had retrieved the chair the grinning man had sent flying across the room, pushing it forward and against the back of his knees so that Jun and Abe could force him into it. The doctor knelt to one side while Jun forced one of the man's arms out straight, baring the vein to the doctor.

The orderlies bent their knees and pressed them firmly against the struggling man, keeping his own from lashing out to kick at the doctor before him.

"Try to keep him still." The doctor's voice was disconcertingly calm considering the situation. Jun only managed a grunt as he kept the struggling patient's arm extended. The doctor raised the syringe to the light and depressed the plunger just enough to get the air out of the needle before he turned his attention back to the patient. The grinning man's extended arm flexed and writhed like a snake, his veins bulging against his flesh, the color startlingly blue.

The doctor placed his hand on the bared arm to steady it further and brought the needle down towards the vein, the motion swift and precise. As the needle punctured the grinning man's arm he tilted his head back and bellowed, his body began twisting even more than before. Jun's grip must have not been as firm as the others, Oharu realized, because the arm twisted loose and the needle broke at the base of the hypodermic. The sudden reversal of pressure made blood jet out of the broken end of the needle still embedded in the grinning man's vein. Blood arced crimson through the air and spattered across the front of Abe's uniform, brilliant red flowers blooming in a snowfield. Abe hissed in surprise and flinched away from the blood, his grip on the grinning man's other slipping.

The grinning man's arm came free and bent at the elbow, driving it firmly into Abe's lower belly. The orderly gave a pained oof and stumbled back a half step, his hands moving to cradle his stomach. The grinning man was already moving again, the viper-quick actions frightening considering his comatose state only a minute ago, and he wrenched the broken needle free of the vein of his other arm. Dr. Fukiyama gave a frustrated shout and began to back up but he was too slow. The grinning man drove the broken needle into the doctor's mouth.

Dr. Fukiyama's squeal of pain was muffled by the grinning man's fist still planted firmly against his mouth. His grin seemed to grow an inch before he twisted the needle cruelly and then shoved the doctor away. Dr. Fukiyama's hands flew up to his mouth; the thin silver length of the needle was barely visible through his fingers, the length bent from the grinning man's last shove.

"Shit!" Jun snatched at the grinning man's hands, trying to pin them back against the chair. The nameless orderly struggled to lock one arm beneath the patient's chin. The man's arms twisted and lashed like a pair of crazed serpents and one of them gripped hard at one of Jun's ears, tugging on the shape. He gave a short grunt of pain, eyes squeezing shut as his head turned to try to relieve the pressure from the pull. As soon as his eyes closed, the grinning man darted in with his head, dragging the orderly behind him forward despite the firm lock he had on his throat.

Oharu couldn't clearly see what happened next, but another wail of pain punctuated the increasing sounds of fear and panic that were spreading among the other patients in the common room. Jun's arms flailed at his sides before they began to push at the grinning man. He was no longer trying to restrain the crazed patient; he was trying to get away.

The grinning man's head moved in two savage back and forth jerks before he pushed Jun away and sent him sprawling on the floor beside the doctor who was still clutching at his pierced mouth. Jun's hands immediately closed over his face, blood poured down his cheeks and his cries seemed to have a strange quality to him. Blood dribbled down the front of the grinning man's chin and something dark red and glistening protruded between his teeth. He drew the object into his mouth and his jaws worked firmly for a few seconds before he spat.

Blood and chunks of flesh and cartilage spewed from between his lips, raining over Jun as he rolled back and forth over the floor. The grinning man had bitten off Jun's nose.

"Dammit! Shit!" In the few seconds it had taken Abe to recover from the grinning man's blow both Jun and the doctor was down on the floor. He scrambled back to try to help the remaining orderly restrain his attacker. Oharu, frozen despite all her training, could only marvel in horrid fascination as the man's grin remained in place during all of this. Even as he howled and leapt out of the chair, practically lifting the orderly grasping him from behind off of his feet in the process. Even as he gripped one of the orderly's arms with both of his hands and twisted them in different directions at once, breaking it as easily as he'd break a bundle of twigs.

He kept grinning.

He twisted away from the screaming orderly, shaking off his broken arm easily and facing Abe as he came toward him. The grinning man stepped forward to meet him, his right hand extending forward and down where he savagely clutched Abe's groin. The muscles in his arm flexed and he gave a twist and Oharu though she heard a very faint popping sound. Abe's eyes flew wide his mouth opening in a silent scream of agony and outrage. The grinning man released Abe's groin, a spreading crimson stain forming on his pants in its place, and drew his arm up and whipped it in a wicked sideways chop against the side of Abe's head. There was a loud crack, like the sound a bat makes when it connects with a baseball, and the orderly's head tilted at an unnatural angle before he collapsed in a boneless heap to the floor.

Within the same moment the grinning man turned to face the last orderly, who was cradling his arm against his chest. The man bent, grabbed the chair by its back and raised it up over his head. The orderly saw the shadow and could only look up before the hard plastic seat was brought down upon his head with crushing force. The orderly didn't even make a sound, collapsing to the ground before the grinning man stepped forward and brought the chair down again. And again. Oharu could only stand and watch, her hands pressed firmly against her mouth to keep a scream from erupting. It was perhaps a small mercy that the table obstructed her view of the orderly, though her mind worked overtime to provide her with horrific images all on its own. In the nearby enclosed office she could hear Yuko speaking into the phone, her voice gaining the high and quick quality of someone just barely keeping themselves in control. She was telling someone to call the police.

Less than a minute had gone by since Dr. Fukiyama had inserted the needle.

The grinning man held the chair aloft one last time but he didn't bring it down. The seat of the chair had cracked along its length and smears of red stained the edge. Despite his fierce display of violence the man was still breathing normally from what she could see, his chest barely moving when an ordinary person would've been drawing deep breaths from such exertions. He lowered the chair but didn't drop it, his head turning quickly in one direction and then the other. He began to walk in slow circles, his head never stopping its searching motions. The doctor and Jun were still clutching at their wounded faces on the floor, the doctor curled into a fetal position while Jun was slowly getting up onto his knees, blood dripping from the ruined hole where his nose had been, his breathing accompanied by a strange, wet whistling through his gaping nasal passage.

His head whipped towards the nearest window and with a low grunt, he walked quickly across the room, patients cogent enough to be aware of the situation scurried out of his way with high and frightened squeals and cries. He stood before the portal and began to bang the chair against it. The glass was reinforced and rippled like liquid against the dark cloth of the night outside; loud cracks filled the air of the room, adding to the sounds of panic and chaos. The grinning man seemed undeterred and continued to rain blows against the window. The seat of the chair split under the constant abuse but he continued, the muscles of his arms flexing as he continued to try and smash the window until the chair finally came apart, the metal rods bending.

He threw the ruined chair down and grabbed at his head, letting out another one of those strange and frightening screams. Oharu could see his visage reflected in the glass marred only by a crack that had formed in the middle of the window from the grinning man's relentless assault. He balled his hands into fists and began to hammer them against the window; his blows came faster and seemed to gain an edge of desperation. The grinning man howled in mounting frustration, smears of blood formed on the window where he battered his hands against the glass where the flesh of his hands had split.

The lights overhead flickered again and Oharu saw something.

She wasn't sure if it was a trick of the brief strobing effect or a result of the extreme shock and stress she felt at what she had witnessed but she thought she saw something strange around the grinning man. There seemed to be cords of something coming out of his back and spreading out in all directions. Though she realized that "cord" wasn't exactly the right word but it was the closest she could come to describing it. They were thin and there had been at least three of them. They didn't appear to be physical things, indeed they most closely resembled the strange wavy quality you see on a hot summer day when you look down the road and see heat radiating off the street.

Motion closer to Oharu brought her attention back to Jun. The orderly had managed to get back to his feet, continued to dribble down his face and spatter across the front of his uniform. His eyes were wide and seemed almost delirious with the pain he was feeling. He looked down and around, his eyes resting on the still forms of Abe and the other orderly and on Dr. Fukiyama, who had managed to sit up and back against the leg of the table. He was staring straight ahead, his hands down to either side of his body. The thin, twisted length of the broken needle jutted from his upper lip, impaling it against his gums where it had been driven deep into the pink flesh and bone beneath.

Jun fixed his eyes on the back of the grinning man, who was still howling and banging on the window. Cracks had began to form in the center where the chair had finally came to pieces against the glass and they were spider webbing outwards, inching their way towards the edges of the window with every blow from the grinning man's fists. Jun ran across the room towards him and slammed bodily against the back of the man, crushing his face and front against the window. The glass finally gave way under their combined weight, the grinning man fell forward and through the shattered window, Jun collapsed behind him, wrapping his arms around his legs and yanking firmly. The grinning man's shoulders and head landed solidly on the window's now open frame, his arms pin wheeling fitfully, knocking free any remaining shards of glass in the sides in a shimmering rain that fell over the struggling men.

The grinning man finally found purchase and pushed himself up from the ruined window and turned around to look down at Jun, his lips still split in a wide grin, his eyes still eerily black. Cuts and gashes left streaks of red across his face and chest. A large piece of glass jutted from the left side of the grinning man's throat, blood trickled freely and copiously around the edges, quickly changing the color of his shirt from white to red. His expression almost seemed to gain an air of confusion as one hand reached up to feel at the shard of glass.

His grin gained its feral quality again when he saw Jun pushing himself up from the floor in front of him. With no hesitation, the grinning man gripped the shard of glass in his hand and ripped it free of his throat, tearing the wound open even more in the process. There was a brief choking gurgle and blood bubbled out from between his teeth but he seemed oblivious to the fact that he'd only hastened his demise his eyes wild with fury. He raised the shard of glass high over his head and began to slash at Jun wildly, streamers of blood whipped from the crimson shard of glass as he alternated stabbing at Jun's raised arms and then slashing at them.

Jun was crawling backwards across the floor, pulling himself with one arm while he continued to raise the other to ward off the slashing strikes, which were quickly reducing his arm to a torn and shredded wreck. Jun lay flat on his back, braced his body against the floor, and drove his foot out hard against the grinning man's leg. His heel connected solidly with his knee and there was a dull crunch as the joint bent in the opposite way it was designed to.

The grinning man actually shrieked in pain his slashes pausing as he stumbled on a leg that no longer worked the way it was supposed to. Jun rolled quickly to one side as the man fell forward onto the floor, his face bouncing off the hard linoleum with a solid knock. The blood from the wound in his throat was flowing freely now, a puddle quickly spreading across the floor, ripples in the red liquid coming in time with the man's quickly fading heartbeat. His body heaved once. Twice. And his last breath came, a low rattling sound, the escaping breath adding to the ripples of the pool of blood that formed around his head and shoulders.

Jun lay on his back, eyes closed and his arms limp at his sides. The vicious wound on his face was completely bared; a deep red and ragged crater just above his mouth, and Oharu felt sympathy and empathy surge in her heart. She felt her gaze moving around the rest of the room. Miki was curled up in a corner, her huddled form racked by sobs. Sho was by her side, gently stroking her head while he continued to watch the still form of the grinning man, as if expecting him to leap back to his feat and continue his rampage.

When she saw the still form of Abe, she felt her stomach twist into knots. His eyes stared upwards, sightlessly. She couldn't see the other orderly but considering the state of the chair after the grinning man had beaten him, she could assume the worst. Dr. Fukiyama finally seemed to be coming out of his state of shock, his eyes were wild in their sockets, more white visible in them than the iris. His body was trembling violently, his mouth working in silent murmurs of disbelief.

Her vision blurred as tears welled up within her eyes. She could hear a commotion out in the hallway and then the buzzing as Yuko opened the door, a number of orderlies and nurses rushed into the room, along with another one of the on duty doctors for the ward. Through the broken window, she could hear the wail of police sirens in the distance, getting closer.

Why hadn't she been able to do anything?

It had all happened so fast. She tried to reason with herself. It was over before she could even think to do anything. And even if she had tried to do something, she probably would've only ended up hurt. Or killed.

Oharu took in a shaky breath, wiped the palm of her hand briefly across her eyes, and then stepped forward to join the rest of the staff in tending to the wounded. This is what she had trained for all her life. She was an angel of mercy. She was in her element.


	9. The First Night: Memory

-1**Author's Note: What can I say? Well sorry I guess would be a start. Through a very toxic mixture of distraction, writer's block and outright laziness I kept putting off writing this chapter. But now it's here so those of you who still care can have fun (hopefully) and those of you who are new to the story, well, you don't have to wait as long for this chapter as most everybody else has had to wait.**

**Enjoy.**

**The First Night:**

**Memory**

At first Negi was unsure about what had captured Konoka and Chamo's attention in the room they had just left but when he joined them in the doorway he knew immediately why they suddenly been so nervous.

Two figures stood amid the dilapidated desks and chairs, one of them quite tall and the other quite short. Even if the light spell in that room had faded, Negi still would have been able to recognize them in the darkness and with recognition he felt his heart sink.

"M-Master! And Chachamaru-san!" Negi blurted. He winced at how high and frightened his voice sounded and he paused to swallow and put on his best grin before continuing. "How were you able to find us?"

"How could I not?" The vampiress answered him with her own question. Her blue eyes danced with light reflected from the orb that still hovered near the ceiling. "Your light spell is so strong Chachamaru didn't even need to use her night vision or infrared to pick up you and the rest of the Negi squad." She raised one hand and gave a brief and dismissive flick of her wrist. "Why don't you extinguish it before you attract any more attention to yourself?"

Negi felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment, in his haste to aid Asuna he hadn't considered the brightness would actually bring the people he was trying to avoid. Tightening his grip on his staff, he channeled his will through the tool and slowly the orb of light that hovered within the abandoned classroom began to dim before ultimately vanishing from sight. He left the orb in the tower intact for the moment, not wanting to bring complete darkness upon them just yet.

"Very good." Evangeline commented her voice dripped with an exaggerated complimentary tone. "Now why don't you tell me why you're out here in the first place, bouya? Scuttlebutt says you were explicitly told by the old man himself that you weren't to take part in the patrols tonight." She folded arms over her front; black fabric clothed them from the wrists to mid-bicep, lengths of ribbon crisscrossed along the fabric, cinching it tightly against her slender limbs.

Taking a closer look at Evangeline and Chachamaru, Negi saw that the pair was dressed like they were expecting trouble. Evangeline was dressed in the outfit she had worn for the Budokai: a sleeveless top and a pair of shorts with thick-soled boots that boosted her diminutive frame and gave her an added sense of toughness. Of course only people who didn't know her true nature would ever make the mistake of thinking she wasn't tough in the first place. Chachamaru had foregone the usual maid uniform she wore when attending to Evangeline for a vest and a wraparound skirt that didn't fully conceal a pair of shorts and a pair of boots that matched her mistress'.

"Kazumi told me that she was out here earlier in the day taking pictures for the school paper. She saw and heard some things that scared her. I thought it sounded like it was worth investigating." Negi met Evangeline's blue eyes as he answered her, not wanting to show any more weakness than he already had.

"Is that so?" Evangeline asked. Her smile remained on her doll-like features though it never reached her eyes. "And it never occurred to you that maybe you should contact the old man and let him know about what you had found out?"

"Of course it did." Negi responded immediately. But whatever was here could be gone by the time the dean was able to send someone out to investigate."

"And it could already have left by the time you arrived." Evangeline countered. She took a brief look around the deserted classroom she stood in the middle of and kicked over one of the small pyramids of bones that had been stacked upon the floor. The bones collapsed and tumbled off and out of sight into the darkened corners of the room. "And it looks like that's the case. Doesn't it?" She looked back up at him, waiting for his response. Chachamaru continued to stand off to the side and slightly behind Evangeline, her arms flat against her sides, her expression impassive and unreadable.

"I won't stand by when one of my students could be in danger." Negi gripped his staff more tightly in his hand. "It's not that I don't trust the dean or the others to do their jobs but these are _my_ students. They're my responsibility."

"So you bring more of your students out with you and put them in danger?" The vampiress raised one hand, gesturing to the girls that stood behind him. "One of them is the old man's granddaughter in case you haven't noticed bouya." She lowered her hand and placed it on her hip.

"Well, Evangeline, you're also one of my students." Negi watched the corners of the vampiress' eyes tighten, her lips pressing together. He looked up at the silent gynoid. "You too, Chachamaru." The automaton's reaction was a little more pronounced than Evangeline's, her cheeks actually darkening with a blush that he could detect in the dim moonlight. "And if either one of you were the one missing I'd still be out here looking for you. We all would."

"Not me." Asuna muttered from behind him. Negi cast a quick and horrified glance over his shoulder before the orange-haired girl raised her hands defensively. "Kidding! I'm kidding! Mou…" She grumbled and hefted her blade back up over her shoulder.

"Technically, I'm one of your students." Evangeline muttered, her eyes narrowing just a little. "But the old man is responsible for _all_ the students at Mahora. When you defy him and come out here with your groupies all you're doing is raising the chance that something will happen to them."

"We can take care of ourselves!" Asuna called out. She stepped around Konoka and Setsuna, leaving them in the room at the base of the clock tower to join Negi, Evangeline and Chachamaru in the classroom. "You keep talking about us like we're a bunch of helpless kids. We fought in Kyoto and during the Festival so--"

"Quiet!" Evangeline snapped. He voice was quiet but it carried a weight and authority that made a raised tone unnecessary. The tip of her fangs gleamed briefly in the moonlight. Asuna was winding herself up for a comeback before Evangeline cut her off. "You think just because you survived a few skirmishes that you're some master of combat now?" The vampiress turned her eyes from Asuna to the rest. "Do you?" She asked them again.

Negi searched his mind for some kind of comeback. He wanted to tell her that they were ready for anything. That they had the experience to do what it took to save Satomi and deal with whatever was prowling the campus. However, all he could think of was when he had fought his "father" during the Budokai. He had used everything he had learned and had still been defeated rather easily by the memory of Nagi.

He thought about Konoka, Setsuna and Asuna. They had had some experience, Setsuna had training, but they were still young. All of them. Even if they were showing great skill it didn't compare to the hundreds of years Evangeline possessed, or the time spent in war-torn countries that Mana had. Not to mention Takahata who had actually traveled with and fought alongside his father.

Evangeline looked at them all for a moment more before her expression began to soften, but only around the edges. She read the answer in their eyes. "You've fought demons and mages before. But they're only like individual grains of sand on a beach. There are so many different kinds of beings and types of magic that it'd make your little heads spin." She gave a brief, frustrated, toss of her head, her ankle-length blonde hair shimmering behind her as she continued. "If you run into this using your old tactics against a completely new enemy it could be a disaster. You could all be dead before you know it."

The vampiress took a moment to look into each of their eyes, looking for the realization to sink in. "Dead." She repeated. "And where will that leave the rest of your students, bouya?"

Negi looked down at the floor, his eyes briefly closing as Evangeline brought her point home. He heard a quiet snort from Asuna but he could tell that Evangeline's speech had had an effect on her as well. The young wizard quickly brought his eyes back up, expecting the see the child vampire's usual gloating grin on her features. He wasn't disappointed, though he thought that it somehow seemed restrained in this case. Restrained for Evangeline anyway.

"I know that you feel like you've got to shoulder all the problems around here yourself, bouya. Though I have no idea why, and it can get damn annoying sometimes, like right now, but you aren't the only person around here who cares about what happens to your students. The old man, Takahata and the rest are out there right now looking for Satomi and whatever it is that's spirited her away."

"So you're out here looking for Satomi because you care?" Asuna asked. The girl didn't bother to hide her skepticism.

Evangeline looked from Negi to Asuna, her lips twisting into a little smirk. "Satomi is a weird little geek girl that really needs to get out of the lab and get a boyfriend. But," she shrugged. "She keeps Chachamaru up and running smoothly. Isn't that right?" She tilted her head back towards the gynoid in question though she never turned her head to look at her.

"Yes Mistress." Chachamaru answered simply, her head tilting forward in a barely perceptible nod.

"It may not be here anymore but we found something shows Satomi may have been here." Setsuna piped up for the first time since Evangeline's arrival. Negi turned to watch the swords girl step into the classroom, holding the small piece of white cloth he and Asuna had found a few minutes ago. Chibi Setsuna floated in after the girl perching unceremoniously atop Setsuna's head with a playful giggle. The swords girl grimaced briefly in embarrassment before continuing. "If you're going to look for Satomi this may help you."

Evangeline stepped forward to take the cloth from Setsuna and handed it back towards her gynoid servant. "Take a look, Chachamaru. What do you think?"

Chachamaru raised the cloth up to her face, her eyes focusing on the small tattered object. A few moments of silence passed before a barely audible click signaled the end of the gynoid's examination. "The fabric is a very simple cotton weave that's found in over ninety percent of commercial lab coats." She paused for a moment before continuing. "But there are traces of chocolate and egg yolk in the fibers."

When everybody else continued to look at Chachamaru, she explained further. "Satomi often eats while she works. She uses the edge of her lab coat as an impromptu napkin. She always has fried eggs for breakfast and she's been known to snack on Pocky."

"So this is from Satomi's coat?" Negi asked.

Chachamaru looked at him, her voice continuing in its steady and inflectionless drone. "I'm not completely certain but it is quite likely that it is."

Negi felt his spirits brighten. Satomi _had_ been here. Had she been moved somewhere else after Kazumi had come by earlier that day?

Evangeline saw the expression on his face and quickly stepped forward. "Don't let it get to your head but it looks like you and the Negi Squad may have found something after all. Now where did you find this exactly?" She lightly tapped one foot on the floor, her blue eyes drilling into him.

"We found it in the basement." Asuna answered for him. She jerked a thumb over her shoulder indicating the door through which hey had come. "There's an opening in one of the walls that leads into a tunnel or something. It was snagged on a splinter of wood around the hole."

Evangeline nodded once and then put her hands on her hips, arms akimbo, as she looked over the Negi and his students. "Well thank you very much for your help." She began with a small and pleased smile. "I'll be sure to let the old man know about it. Oh, wait…" Her blue eyes narrowed cattishly and her smile turned into a grin. "You're not even supposed to be out here. So why don't you all get back to the dorms? Now? Or I'll tell Ms. Happy's grandfather that I found all of you out here playing spin the bottle."

Setsuna gave a brief start, her cheeks coloring. "S-spin the bottle?" The sword girl looked down at the floor, displaying a rare case of jitters.

"Yeah…" Evangeline answered with a grin, drawing out the word slowly as if savoring the taste of it. "You'd be out here spinning the bottle and kissing that brute Asuna, or your teacher, or maybe even-"

"Alright alright. We get it shrimp, we're going." Asuna muttered as she held her blade out to the side. "_Abeat._" There was a silent flash of light and the giant blade, _Ensis Exorcizans_, returned to its original card form. Without another word, Asuna began to walk past Evangeline and Chachamaru.

Konoka stepped into the room to join them finally. "Eva-chan if you find Hakase-chan and she's hurt make sure she gets medical attention right away, okay?" The young white mage implored. "That's all I'm asking of you Eva-chan. You too, Chacha-chan."

The diminutive vampiress rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Do you want me to promise to make her favorite snack and kiss her boo-boos after I find her too? Chachamaru and I could have already been in the tunnel searching by now if you kids didn't keep asking me questions." She raised her hands and made a shooing gesture. "Now hurry up and get back to the dorm."

Konoka frowned, still cradling Chamo against her chest with her arms. When it looked like she was going to protest Chachamaru soothed her worries. "Do not worry, Konoka. Satomi is my creator and I will tend to her injuries if she has any."

The white mage beamed. "Yes, she's like your mom isn't she, Chacha-chan?" She giggled. "Okay. I know you'll take good care of her." Konoka, seemingly satisfied, began to follow Asuna out of the building, Setsuna not far behind her. The paper golem perched on her head, however, seemed to be confused.

"Huh? I thought we were going on a demon hunt!" Chibi Setsuna squeaked. She crossed her arms over her front and made a little face. "Why are we leaving?"

Setsuna answered the pouting golem without stopping, "Our services are required elsewhere. We'll leave the hunting to those two for now." If Evangeline felt any reservations about Setsuna hinting they might be out again in the future she didn't let it show, the vampiress' grin remaining firmly in place.

"That's not fair! I was really looking forward to going on a hunt." The paper golem continued to pout from her perch on Setsuna's head.

"I know but somehow I don't think you're quite ready for that yet." When Setsuna finished speaking, she reached up and placed a finger lightly against her tiny doppelganger's head. Chibi Setsuna's eyes widened and with a silent puff of smoke, she disappeared. A small, white object toppled off the sword girl's head before it was snatched out of the air by her nimble fingers upon which she summarily rolled up the _ofuda_ and deposited it within her fanny pack.

Negi watched Setsuna join Konoka, who was waiting by the ruined entrance of the building, and depart before he began to leave himself. He couldn't say that he was wholly satisfied leaving the search for Satomi to Evangeline and the others but the knowledge that they were professionals and had more experience with such things helped to soothe his worries. A sudden grip on his forearm, so tight it bordered on the painful, prompted a quick turn of his head, upon which he promptly saw a pair of blue eyes penetrating him with a gaze that managed to be both fiery and cool at the same time.

"I won't forget what you tried to do here in front of your groupies, bouya." The quiet quality of Evangeline's voice unnerved the young mage more than if she had been openly hostile. She gave his arm a squeeze with her small and slender fingers. It took a conscious effort not to wince from the crushing grip. The vampiress' lips curled upward in a small smile that was anything but pleasant. "Next training session we have you're going to be in so much pain." She practically purred the last word, vice-like grip of her hand eased into an almost tender stroking before she released him.

Negi drew his arm against his side studied Evangeline for a long moment before he offered her a smile of his own. "I know, Master." He answered her. "But I still meant what I said. If you were the one that was missing I'd still be the one out looking for you, even if nobody else came."

The vampiress' expression changed immediately. Her cool features warmed with a blush that even he could see in the scant silver moonlight that illuminated the long deserted classroom. Her blue eyes widened once before she gave a toss of her head, blonde hair swaying behind her before her features seemed to regain some of their steel. "You damn fool." She muttered, though her eyes seemed to be unable to meet his for a moment.

Evangeline looked towards the still lit doorway that led into the clock tower portion of the building and straightened, her arms folding neatly over her stomach. "Be sure to turn the lights out after you leave. Chachamaru and I won't have a problem seeing in the dark."

Negi smiled again and gave a small bow, his head tilting forward. "Yes Master." He answered with no hint of sarcasm and turned to leave the building and join Asuna and the others. The orb of light still hovering within the tower soon dimmed and vanished much like its twin had only minutes before, leaving Chachamaru and Evangeline alone amid the dust, the desks and the bones.

***

"Mistress?"

Evangeline blinked and looked away from the entrance of the deserted school building and towards her servant and companion. Chachamaru looked back at her steadily, her expression as impassive as ever, but Evangeline knew the gynoid didn't have to say anything more.

"Let's go." Evangeline turned her back on the entrance of the building and proceeded through the classroom and into the clock tower, Chachamaru following closely behind. Soon enough the pair had descended through the trapdoor and into the cellar of the building, standing in front of the collapsed wall and looking out into the tunnel that continued into the darkness to the left and right.

Taking a moment to look down each passage, Evangeline gave a quiet huff and turned to look at Chachamaru. "Can you tell which way they went?"

The gynoid looked down to the ground as if in thought, though Evangeline knew that she was searching for tracks of some kind. After another second Chachamaru looked back up, "I'm sorry, Mistress. Too much time has passed for heat to be of any use and there appear to be no signs of depressions from extreme weight or talons."

Evangeline made a quiet frustrated sound. "You better send a message to that girl who's looking after the network that we've got a possible lead on our little visitor. What's her name again? Eggnog or something…" The vampiress waved a hand.

"I believe she's called Nutmeg, Mistress." Chachamaru gently corrected before she stood still, preparing to send the message. A small transmitter extended from one of her ear antenna as she summarized their progress, notably leaving out their encounter with Negi and his students, before beaming it away. The transmitter retracted safely into her antenna once more and the gynoid nodded. "Message sent and received, Mistress." She folded her hands neatly over her front, waiting for further orders from the vampiress.

Evangeline placed one hand on her hip, her eyes scanning the darkness as she thought on what to do next. "Do you know where we're at in the tunnel system, Chachamaru?"

"I have a very close approximation, Mistress."

"Which passage would take us back towards the campus town?"

"The left, Mistress."

Evangeline nodded and stepped through the hole and into the tunnel proper. It was a simple design with a short arch overhead, and cool, cracked concrete making up the floor and walls. Chachamaru stepped through after her, the tall gynoid having to stoop just a little to make it through the hole.

In the near total darkness, Evangeline's vampiric senses could still make out the length of the tunnel continuing ahead. She knew that Chachamaru could see at least as far herself, owing to the enhanced vision abilities provided by her mechanical construction.

The tunnels that ran under the considerable size of the Mahora campus had been there since the academy's establishment many years ago. The passageways were used for a myriad of reasons, some more mundane like access to maintenance areas throughout the campus, while others were directly linked to the more arcane and magical aspects of the academy.

Evangeline knew of their existence but rarely had reason to venture into their labyrinthine depths. Consequently, she wasn't familiar with many of their designs. However, from the rather simple construction of the tunnel she was currently investigating, and the spacing of caged but unlit bulbs along the ceiling, it seemed more likely to be a service tunnel of some kind. She decided to tap into Chachamaru's built-in knowledge of the campus layout for confirmation.

"How far on does this tunnel go?" Evangeline kept her voice quiet to lessen the chance of it creating an echo in the long, dark passage but couldn't help but notice that the heavy steps of her servant was more than enough to announce their approach to anything that might be lurking in the tunnels ahead.

"About a half kilometer more before we reach a fork, Mistress." Chachamaru replied just as quietly, following the lead of her mistress. As if understanding the reason for Evangeline's lowered tone, a subtle change appeared in her smooth gait, her steps falling more lightly upon the cold concrete, lessening the sound of her movements substantially.

"Where do the paths in the fork lead?"

"The same place eventually." When Evangeline gave her a questioning look, she elaborated. "Both of the paths circle around to a larger hub chamber. The path to the left has two passages that lead away before it reaches the hub while the path to the right is nearly a straight line, with only a small storage area for maintenance tools and materials along the way."

Evangeline thought to herself as they continued to walk down the tunnel. So far, there had been no obvious signs of anything passing through the area ahead of them. She had to concede that the creature may not have even come this way at all, or perhaps had left the school building and gone into the woods surrounding it instead of heading back into the tunnels. But something told her they were on the right track. This creature was a predator and it would head back towards the campus town with nightfall. It would head back towards its prey.

"When we reach the fork we'll split up and explore each of the paths and meet at the hub at the end of the tunnels. You have the map of this place in your head so you can go left where there are additional branches while I'll go right since it's practically a straight line from there to the hub. If either one of us sees anything we'll let the other know when we reach the hub and then we can go back and investigate it together. Is that clear, Chachamaru?" Evangeline gave a sidelong look to the gynoid, her head tilting up just slightly to meet her eyes.

She nodded, "Yes, Mistress."

They continued to walk on in silence, keeping their attention focused for any particular clues or markers that might show the recent passage of their quarry but found nothing. Soon the fork came into view, the tunnel branching off to the left and right in a Y-shaped intersection.

Evangeline paused in front of the fork; the arches of the tunnels yawned to either side and disappeared into darkness. She briefly considered why the lights she saw regularly placed along the ceiling weren't operating, but the tunnel so far seemed to possess a feeling of abandonment that was also evidenced in the many cracks she saw splitting the concrete in the walls and floor.

The vampiress glanced up at her servant again, flashing a small and cocky grin. "I'll see you on the other side, Chachamaru." She began to depart down the right passage when Chachamaru stopped her.

"Mistress, will you be alright? I know you have regained some of your power from the price you take from Negi-sensei but…"

Evangeline arched an eyebrow and then smiled, sliding a hand down her side. From some hidden pocket she produced a small phial of a brightly colored liquid that sloshed about within. "I plan to rely on more than my brute strength, Chachamaru. I wouldn't come out here without my catalysts." She deftly replaced the small glass and gave an elegant shrug. "With the full moon only a few days away it shouldn't require that many for me to put myself in good shape spell casting-wise." She smiled again, her blue eyes glittering with something that bordered on childish mischief. "Thank you for your concern though, Chachamaru. Will you be alright?" She asked the gynoid in turn, her eyes widening theatrically.

Chachamaru paused and then ducked her head just a little, trying to hide the blush of embarrassment that came to her cheeks. "Y-Yes, Mistress. Of course." With that she gave a deep bow at the waist, her green hair briefly falling forward over her shoulders before she straightened and turned to depart down the left passage, her tall figure soon disappearing from sight.

Evangeline's teasing smile melted from her young-looking features after Chachamaru left. She turned to look down the right passage and began her own journey. Soon she was enveloped by the gloom, following the tunnel as it continued onwards, noticing that the path made a slow and almost imperceptible curve to the right. She moved slowly, her eyes in constant motion along the floor, walls and ceiling, seeking out any telltale signs of recent passage and keeping her more arcane senses open for the hint of magic.

Walking down the tunnel with only her thoughts for company, the vampiress thought back on that morning and the strange video that seemed to ignite everything that followed that day. At first, she had thought that the girl had pulled some kind of vicious prank on her classmates but that feeling didn't last. Satomi was a strange duck it was true but even this had seemed beyond her abilities. It had been designed expressly for the sole purpose of frightening and upsetting those who watched it.

As the day had gone on and the shadows grew longer, her doubts grew right alongside them. Negi's inability to contact Satomi and the call from the old man had only cemented her feelings that the campus did indeed have a visitor. And, while she'd never share this with Negi, she didn't have very high hopes in finding Satomi in one piece let alone alive. While Negi had faced opponents before most of them, with the exception of Fate Averruncus, had seemed soft to the vampiress. Evangeline knew that he wasn't quite ready to face the real thing. In her mind, he was still too soft.

She saw a niche up ahead in one side of the tunnel's wall and she tilted her head curiously as she approached. It wasn't long before she realized that she had found the maintenance storage area Chachamaru had mentioned earlier. A chain link door that left only a few inches of space between the bottom and the door itself separated the storage space from the tunnel proper. Standing in front of the door, Evangeline peered through the links at the contents within, taking note of a small worktable and a number of boxes stacked against the far wall of the storage room. The abundant cobwebs and thick layers of dust upon everything within sight only strengthened her thoughts that this part of the tunnel complex hadn't been used in a very long time.

Blue eyes fell on the padlock that kept the door closed. Evangeline reached out to grab the old lock with her small, delicate fingers and gave it only the slightest of tugs. The loop holding the latch of the door shut snapped with a quiet crack and the vampiress palmed the now destroyed lock in her hand. "Ooops." She murmured dully, her other hand pulling the door open enough for her to step inside the disused storage room. She didn't think the storage room would hold any clues about the Satomi's fate or whatever may be behind it but it she didn't want to be accused of not being thorough enough in her investigation.

She reached out to run one finger over the top of the table, the pale digit coming away with a dark smudge of dust and dirt upon its tip. She grimaced and wiped the grime away on the edge of one boot before kneeling to look beneath the workbench, which showed an unsurprising collection of discarded tools and the belts that would've held them.

Evangeline sighed and began to straighten when she heard a small scurrying sound emerge from the pile of boxes against the wall. Arching a delicate eyebrow, the vampiress approached the boxes, pushing against them with the toe of one of her thick-soled shoes. "Alright. Come on out whatever you are." She punctuated her demand with a firmer shove of her foot, jostling the pile of boxes noisily until a pair of them toppled over onto the floor in front of her. A flurry of movement along the floor brought her attention to the most likely source of the sound she had just heard.

A rat, long, sleek and fat with a dusty brown coat, hurried along the base of the wall, making a beeline past Evangeline. The rodent's glittering eyes fixed the vampiress and it uttered a low and hoarse hiss of annoyance, flashing sharp yellow incisors before it reached the tunnel and turned to the right. She smirked after the fleeing pest, watching its thick hairless tail disappear around the corner.

"You better run." Evangeline muttered before she stepped back out of the storage space, absently closing the chain link door behind her. She saw the rat disappearing down the tunnel ahead of her, its body waddling furiously as it tried to put more space between itself and the disturber of its little nook.

The vampiress resumed her trek down the tunnel, her eyes resting on the rat as it traversed the tunnel ahead of her, almost thinking of it as some kind of tracking animal. The tunnel continued its rightward curve for several more meters before it began to slowly curve back towards the left, presumably angling towards the hub area that Chachamaru had spoken of. The small animal ahead of her was making rather good progress for having short stubby legs and its furry form had soon disappeared ahead of her.

Evangeline continued down the gently curving tunnel, her blue eyes shifted constantly to explore the wall and floors of the tunnel but her efforts yielded no clues as to Satomi's presence or the presence of anything else for that matter. The vampiress couldn't help but feel a sense of frustration. Had she made the wrong choice after all?

After walking for several more minutes Evangeline saw the tunnel terminate into a large, open room. The ceiling soared upwards to make a small domed ceiling that overlooked a circular room that, like Chachamaru said, acted as a hub for numerous tunnels that spread off into different directions. Their yawning openings were filled with an inky gloom that seemed to suffuse everything since the pair had entered the tunnel system. After a quick look around, Evangeline saw that Chachamaru was not present. The automaton must still be busy exploring her part of the tunnel system.

_Maybe._ A small, still voice whispered at the back of Evangeline's mind. _Or maybe it's gotten her. Maybe you're alone down here._

"Rubbish." Evangeline muttered into the empty room. Her voice, as quiet as it was, still managed to elicit a small echo off the arched ceiling and the curved walls between the tunnel openings. She looked briefly from side to side, wondering from which of the tunnels Chachamaru would emerge.

It was then that she heard something from within the darkness. She had almost mistaken it as one last fading echo from her voice but the sound had been high and had ceased suddenly. The audio effect created by the tunnels was disorienting and the vampiress began to step out towards the center of the hub room, her head slowly tilting to one side as she tried to determine from which tunnel the sound had came.

She turned slowly in place, eyeing each of the tunnel openings with suspicion. Her hands slipped down over her side and soon small bottles danced between slender digits. The silence of the tunnels around her no longer seemed to speak of isolation or abandonment. Now the stillness seemed pregnant with a thoughtful and contrived menace. It reminded Evangeline of the kind of silence she felt right before she would feed.

She was being hunted.

Another sound interrupted the silence. She turned quickly towards a tunnel opposite of the one she had used to enter the room. It was short like the one before but she could make out a wet and organic quality to the noise this time. Suddenly another one of her senses was assaulted, her nostrils flared as they took in the coppery scent only a vampire could know so intimately.

The scent of blood put her on edge; the hairs on the back of her neck and along her arms began to rise, saliva flooded her mouth. Evangeline had to make a conscious effort to keep her hunting instincts from fully kicking in, but she didn't fully push the hunger away. If she needed to, she could tap into that little piece of savagery. It had been a long time since she'd been pressed enough to have to grasp at the beast inside of her but she admitted that a part of her was almost looking forward to the possibility. Sometimes, it was fun to lose control.

Movement deep within the shadows down the tunnel made the vampiress' body tense. A small object arced out of the darkness and bounced across the floor towards her before rolling towards her feet. She knew a distraction when she saw one but she spared it a quick glance just to make certain it wasn't a weapon of some kind. Small black eyes stared sightlessly up at her, the mouth that had issued a warning hiss minutes ago now hung open in a silent and eternal screech, a small tongue dangled out the side, blood dribbling down the slack muscle. The rat's head had landed face up; the torn end of what had once been its neck seemed to have stuck to the concrete floor, a smear of wet crimson marking its short roll across the floor before coming to a stop.

The gruesome sight didn't deter Evangeline. She continued to stare down the tunnel from which the gory object had emerged, offering a small and humorless grin for the watcher in the darkness.

She remembered the dean's admonishment about avoiding conflict with their target but, from the looks of things, she'd lost any chance of sneaking up on their visitor. Perhaps she could place a tracking spell of some kind upon the being before making a quick retreat as much as it would irk her to do so.

"Why don't you come on out of the darkness so I can see your pretty little face?" Evangeline teased her voice a lazy drawl. She deftly switched some of the phials of catalyst from one hand to the other, freeing it as she began to reach out for that meager strand of energy that was afforded her when the curse was in full effect. It wasn't long before her challenge was answered. She felt more than saw something moving within the darkness of the tunnel ahead of her and she smiled to herself, readying the spell she had in mind. Simple and quick, it would fix the target with the equivalent of a magic radio transmitter, broadcasting its location so brazenly even the most poorly trained acolyte of magic would be able to pick it up.

The shape lurked just beyond her vision, a patch of darker blackness against the shadow, and she opened her mouth to call to it again when a sensation like the delicate caress of ice against the base of her skull, brought her words up short. As quickly as the sensation had arrived it vanished, Evangeline's breath rushed out in a surprised gasp in the wake of the chill touch. Her smile twisted into a grimace and she readied her incantation, her hand rising to loose the catalyst against the shape and attach the tracking spell when a deep crimson light sprang to life in the darkness and the shadow stepped forward, its shape and finer details finally defined for the vampiress.

The phial tumbled impotently from her fingers and bounced off the toe of her shoe, rolling off into the darkness and beyond her reach.

The creature was tall. Easily taller than Chachamaru, the being had to stoop to keep its head from scraping against the ceiling of the tunnel, but it wasn't its size that had had Evangeline staring with wide terror-filled eyes.

She knew what it was.

***

_Castles are fortresses. _

_Designed with only the protection of those inside in mind, they were deadly to any who would dare to attack them. Narrow avenues of approach forced the enemy into tight pockets, allowing the defenders from the high walls and towers to hurl death upon them to devastating effect. Castles were the bastions for those in power. They formed the linchpins of defensive lines and presented a rock upon which an attacking force could batter itself into ruin._

_This particular castle had seen its fair share of violence. Hundreds of men had died in the stake-filled trenches that lined its walls, hundreds more upon the ramparts. The sea that roared tirelessly at the base of the cliffs upon which the castle sat was the tomb for many more. Men dashed to death on the rocks or pulled into the cold depths by the weight of the armor that had been meant to protect them._

_Through it all, the castle still stood, having driven off the armies of rival lords, pagan kings, pirates and the fiercest of pillagers from the lands far to the north. No foe of the family within had ever stood victorious on its parapet. _

_But not the highest ramparts, the thickest walls nor the staunchest defender can defeat the fears that live within the mind of a young girl._

_At that time, so, so long ago, Evangeline had been a normal child. She delighted in the songs played by the musicians during meal times, the ballads sung and poems recited by traveling bards and the tricks performed by the mummers. She especially liked the tales of legends. Fierce warriors and mystical wizards filled her mind with vivid pictures and dreamscapes that can only be created by a young child. _

_Then she heard tales of it. The Nuckelavee._

_She had taken her usual place in the sitting hall after supper, a small cloth doll clutched in her lap as she watched the bard take his place at the center of their attention. His voice rising to be heard by all that sat in the cavernous room, he gestured as he spoke of a strange water elf that haunted the ocean. The fire that burned in the fireplace reflected his gesticulations, casting strange and bizarre shadows that danced across the floor and walls._

_Evangeline's grip on her doll grew tighter as his story went on, the details of the beast's frightful appearance actually brought a small gasp from her and she brought her doll up flush against her front. Her handmaiden laid a calming hand on her shoulder and whispered soothing words but Evangeline found little comfort in them. Instead the girl could only wonder at this grotesque faerie, feeling both fascination and horror in the details, while another part of her felt confusion that she would react so strongly to the tale of this being when similar tales of the murderous Rawhead Rex and Bloody Bones, the ravenous Redcaps and the mournful wail of the _bean nighe_ had not disturbed her nearly as much._

_The tale of the Nuckelavee remained with her even after the bard had moved on to reciting playful poems and heroic ballads. She smiled and applauded with the rest of her family and retainers at all the right moments but her heart remained troubled, her young mind filled with images of the beast. _

_It was a water elf that lived in the ocean. The ocean is at the base of the cliffs, outside the window of her room. The girl shivered despite the warmth provided by the fires. _

_Soon it was time for the privileged to retire. Evangeline clutched her skirts in one hand while the other still hugged her doll fearfully to her side as if its presence could ward off the phantoms that had taken root within her imagination. As she climbed the steps up towards her room in the company of her handmaiden, she remembered turning to the young woman and asking her if the Nuckelavee was real. And if it was real would it be living the sea at the bottom of the cliffs. The young woman laughed softly and reassured her that the water elf was only a story and that no such being existed._

_Evangeline felt a queasy twisting in her stomach. It was, she realized, something she felt when she thought she was being lied to._

_They reached her chamber and soon her handmaiden had helped her change out of her dress and into her night clothes before being ushered into her bed. Evangeline sank into the thick covers of her bed, her ever present doll pulled so close that the toy would be in danger of breaking if it had been made of anything besides cloth. Her attendant stepped into the antechamber and Evangeline listened in the darkness to the rustling of clothes and then the soft creak as the woman changed into her own night clothes and slipped into her bed. Then silence reigned in the young girl's rooms. Or so it should have. _

_Instead the lingering fear seemed to intensify, heightening all of her senses. The quick beating of her heart filled her ears, the soft sighs of her breathing; even the soft rustling of blankets and sheets as she shifted in her bed seemed much too loud. She had experienced the usual fear of the dark that most children shared and had grown out of it in recent years, but now that fear seemed to have returned to her with a vengeance. She wished very much for even a small candle and considered waking her attendant to ask if she'd light one, but the thought of betraying her fear to the woman made her stifle the idea. She was to be promised in marriage soon. She had to show that she was a woman herself._

_The shutters to the large sitting window in her room had been drawn shut and she wished now that they had been left open, for even the pale moonlight would be welcome in helping to push away the shadows within her room. Evangeline thought for a moment and began to sit up in her bed, pushing the covers down so that she could move to the window and open the shutters just a touch when a faraway sound reached her ears and she froze, upright, in her bed._

Ooooooooooooooo….

_Everything seemed to grow still. Her heart seemed to stop within her chest, her blue eyes wide and searching in the darkness, searching for the source of the haunting sound. Her hands held the edge of her blankets, slender white-knuckled fingers digging into the thick material. A moment of silence passed before the girl's breath left her in a quiet and shaky sigh, her small body trembling with fear in her bed. _

Oooooooooooooooo….

_Evangeline immediately drew the covers back over herself, drawing them over her head before finding her doll beneath the covers and held it desperately against her form in a vain attempt to banish the fear that was beginning to run rampant within her mind. The sound was coming from outside her window, from the base of the cliffs where the gray waters of the ocean churn and crash ceaselessly. _

_The Nuckelavee was out there, down in the water and it _knew _she was up here. She saw it in her mind with the vividness that only a troubled child could. The malevolent faerie, its face upturned towards the castle, looking directly at her window. It was waiting for her to open the shutters. Waiting so it could call her down into the waters to her doom._

Ooooooooooooooooo….

_Evangeline rolled over to press her face into her pillows, her arms rising to cover her head as she tried to shield herself from the ghastly sound. A tear ran down her cheek, the first in a flood that soon followed, leaving the girl's cheeks damp as she sobbed quietly into her pillow. It was coming for her. It was coming. It was coming._

_It's coming._

***

The Nuckelavee was just as the bard had described it. Just as she had imagined it so many years ago.

Its body was much like the centaurs in design, with a horse-like lower half and a humanoid torso with arms and head where the horse's head would normally be. Except this creature was completely devoid of skin. Black blood rushed and flowed through visible veins that were the yellow of ancient parchment. With every movement the creature made sinew and muscles throbbed and pulsed in a grotesque mechanical display of white and red tissue. The "legs" of the water elf were a mixture of paw and fin; curled, webbed digits ending in talons made up the front legs while the rear were much more like fins with thick and powerful paddle-like shapes that still pushed the creature easily along the ground despite their awkward-shape.

The upper body was broad chested and powerful, the dark blood raced over powerful ropes of pale sinew that stretched over the length of long and gnarled arms. Hands with fingers tipped in thick, black and broken nails curled into fists, the sound of the muscles tensing and pressing together reminded Evangeline of the sound rope makes when it's pulled to the breaking point.

A single eye, glowing with a baleful red flame, was placed in the middle of the creature's face. The orb was disproportionately large, filling the space from the forehead to where the nostrils would be. And while the eye seemed to take up nearly the entire upper half of the creature's face, the mouth easily took up all of the lower half. A pale and lipless gash that spread from one side of the creature's head to the other, the true size of the maw wasn't apparent until it appeared to grin at Evangeline, muscle skinning back to reveal rows of crooked black fangs.

Evangeline realized with a surge of panic that her head could easily fit within that gaping mouth.

She was dimly aware of some part of her, something very far away, screaming and cursing in frustration. She was a wizard. A _vampire_. Why wasn't she doing anything? All the incantations she knew seemed to have been forgotten, her fighting skills nonexistent. At this moment she was the frightened child she was those hundreds of years ago.

The Nuckelavee's mouth split wide and it uttered a low, whistling howl.

_Oooooooooooooooo_…..

The sound twisted the dagger of fear that had paralyzed Evangeline and drove it even deeper.

She felt her bladder release itself in a rush of warm wetness that coated her thighs. She was too terrified to feel ashamed.

With a quiet, strangled cry she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks painted her face a canvas of pure childish fright that she had wore that night when she had first heard the stories of the malevolent faerie that stood before her. With shimmering blue eyes upturned, she watched the Nuckelavee approach her with a slow and sadistic deliberateness, as if it wanting to draw out the moment for as long as possible. When it began to extend a hand down towards her Evangeline could only stare, her lips trembling with silent murmurs of fear, her eyes beginning to close as she awaited its crushing grasp.

A solid and loud crunch brought her back to her senses. A metallic fist, launched by a steel cable, struck the side of the Nuckelavee's lower half and Evangeline saw the muscle and sinew give beneath the blow accompanied by a series of snapping sounds as ribs shattered beneath the hammer-like blow. The faerie gave a surprised howl as the blow lifted it up off of its legs and sent it careening into the wall of the room with such force that cracks spider webbed away from the point of impact, dust rained down from the ceiling, coating the being as it struggled painfully to its feet. A loud whirring prompted the cable to retract, bringing the heavy metal hand with it.

The Nuckelavee glared murder with its fiery eye before plunging one hand into the ruined wall as easily as if it were reaching into water. Ripping forth a chunk of concrete it hurled the missile at Evangeline. The vampiress scrambled backwards to avoid the object when Chachamaru rushed in front of her, the automaton drew her arm up and backhanded the incoming object, shattering the concrete into a small shower of splinters and shards. Evangeline cried out and raised her arms to shield her eyes from the shower of debris. When she lowered them she saw the faerie fleeing down a tunnel different than the one it had emerged from, moving with a speed that was surprising considering its more aquatically-inclined feet.

"Mistress. Are you alright?" Chachamaru asked as she looked down the tunnel the Nuckelavee had taken. Evangeline found she couldn't answer her immediately; her mind seemed to be filled with a fog of fear and confusion. When she still hadn't answered Chachamaru looked down at her, her voice rising with concern. "Mistress!"

Evangeline gave a start at the sharp and raised tone of the gynoid's voice. She looked away from the tunnel and back up to Chachamaru, her blue eyes wide and tear-stained. She held Chachamaru's gaze for a long moment and seemed to find the strength in its familiarity that had left her only a few moments ago. As it flowed back into her, replacing the icy chill of fear that had gripped her body, so came a smoldering coal of anger that soon blossomed into an inferno of frustration and shame.

"Damn it…" Evangeline growled her blue eyes taking on an icy hue that made Chachamaru actually take a few steps away from the vampiress.

"Damn it!" She shrieked and drove her fist into the floor. The stone gave way under the force of her blow, cratering, and the pain she felt when her knuckles split against the surface only fed the anger she felt at her own body's betrayal.

She remained on the floor for several moments, her chest heaving as she fought down the urge to tear the tunnel apart. To tear the clock tower apart. To tear the whole damn school apart. Squeezing her eyes shut, she took in one last, long deep breath, held it, and exhaled through her nostrils. She opened her eyes to see Chachamaru unwrapping the skirt from around her waist and holding it out to her in a wordless gesture. The gynoid's eyes were steady on Evangeline's, her expression impassive.

It was then that the vampiress felt the warm wetness that coated her legs and groin and with a flush she snatched the skirt without a word and swiftly stood, wrapping the large cloth twice around her much smaller frame before cinching it tightly over one hip.

"Mistress," Chachamaru began after a moment. "I'm sorry. I wasn't able to place a tracking device on it. We won't be able to track it back to Satomi."

"Don't bother." Evangeline murmured darkly, her slender arms folded over her stomach as she looked down the tunnel the Nuckelavee had disappeared down. "Just prepare a report and send it."

"But Mistress…" Chachamaru protested but Evangeline stopped her with a look.

"Just send the report, Chachamaru. Trust me…" The vampiress looked away from her, her eyes staring off at some unseen thing in the darkness. "Satomi's dead."


	10. The First Night: Surveillance

**Author's Note: Well the next chapter is here. There's a lot of action in this one so it was a little easier, and quicker, to write than most of the others. I'm not sure if the next chapter will come as quickly since it will deal with a lot of characters but I'll do my best to try and make it as good as I can and won't rush it. **

**I hope you enjoy.**

**The First Night: Surveillance**

From her vantage point on the roof, Mana watched Zazie through the monocular held up to her left eye.

She had received the phone call from Takahata only a few minutes ago, informing her of his suspicions. In all honesty, Mana was glad to see she wasn't the only one who thought something was strange about her taciturn classmate.

Even before all the business started this morning she had been on her guard around the strange girl. Mana made it a rule to study the backgrounds of anyone she would be associating with on a regular basis, ferreting out any potential moles, spies or informants who may attempt to compromise the security of the campus or her own location and identity. So far all her attempts to do background checks on Zazie had failed to turn up anything beyond the most basic of information.

She existed. She came from the Americas. A birth certificate gave the names of parents, Wes and Daphne Rainyday, but looking up information on them only gave her their ages and occupations. Zazie transferred to Mahora directly after completing Tyler Elementary school in southern California. She had her school and living fees wired electronically through an international banking firm known as Dei Lucrii Mercurius. Despite the rather suspicious name, it was apparently on the up and up. Or at the very least, it had a very well made façade of legitimacy.

In short: Zazie was a mystery and mysteries tended to give Mana a bad feeling.

If Zazie was trying to fit in though the girl was doing a rather poor job of it considering her dark skin, white hair and the symbols painted upon her face. At least she thought they were painted. The girl's expression was as impassive as ever, her eyes staring straight ahead though Mana could detect no hint of dullness in the twin dark brown orbs.

Soon the monocular was unnecessary to track the other girl and Mana put it into a front pocket of her vest and crouched against the edge of the roof, pressing her body close against the small wall that ran the length of the building's roof. Though she had changed into black fatigues to help hide her in the darkness of the night she still sought to reduce her visibility even further out of pure instinct, knowing that the human eye would instinctively focus and find a human silhouette even in the most unlikely of places.

The gunner girl was outfitted in a rather light kit reflecting her current role as a simple tracker and watcher. She had a combat knife with a black painted blade slid into a sheath at the small of her back and a Beretta 96 pistol in a holster on her right hip and a Desert Eagle chambered with .44 rounds strapped to her left hip. Both of the weapons at the present, however, were loaded with exorcism shells designed to be quite effective against magical creatures and spiritual beings. Despite their specialized use Mana had no doubt the rounds could still be quite painful if she were to run into any threats from the mundane world.

Still pressing against the wall she turned her head just enough to watch Zazie as she walked casually, gracefully, down the sidewalk in front of the building opposite of the one upon which she was perched. The girl seemed to be in no hurry to get to her destination, wherever that happened to be, and even from this distance Mana could see that her expression remained a mask of impassiveness and seeming disinterest. Mana couldn't help but feel that the girl was putting on a front for her efforts but decided that feeling may have more to do with her inherent distrust of the girl than anything else. Still, it couldn't hurt to be too careful in this kind of business.

While keeping an eye out for Zazie, Mana began to notice something else; the streets seemed rather empty. There were still people walking about and doing their evening business; most restaurants were still open and serving dinner to students and faculty making their way back to their on-campus residences, not to mention the arcades and other amusement centers of which there were plenty in Mahora. However, considering the hour Mana was expecting to see more civilians threading their way down sidewalks and milling about the plazas of the commercial district. In the end, Mana decided that that was for the better. If things got hairy fewer people on the streets meant collateral damage would be minimal, if not completely avoided.

Below, Zazie came to a halt. The sudden stop made Mana tense, one of her hands moving to hover over the Beretta. Had she been spotted?

Mana watched Zazie lean forward at the waist, her eyes narrowing as she focused her attention straight ahead. The gunner frowned and turned her head to follow Zazie's gaze and saw what had captured the other girl's attention.

The lights further into the town were flickering and shutting off before coming back on. Streetlights, billboards and the lights outside of businesses were not immune from the rolling blackout made its way towards Mana's position. The lights were coming back on shortly after they extinguished themselves, creating a disorienting rippling effect across the townscape as it rushed towards her position. Mana felt herself tensing instinctively when the power outage reached her block and rushed past her, the gunner turning on her heel to watch the disturbance as it continued unabated to the buildings beyond her position and into the distance.

A prickling sensation creeped along Mana's arms and up the back of her neck and again she was confronted by a sense of wrongness. She had heard reports about strange blackouts earlier and now, seeing it firsthand, she had no doubt that they were the result of something beyond simple power failure. What was causing them and what their purpose was she couldn't yet ascertain. It would be something else for them to look into.

With a start Mana remembered Zazie and peered over the edge of the wall again towards where the girl had stopped only moments ago. Zazie was nowhere to be seen.

Mana cursed quietly under her breath and looked up and down the length of the street, seeking out the girl. A few figures made their way down the sidewalks but none of them was Zazie. Seeing no avenues that Zazie could quickly use to slip off of the street further ahead Mana turned to make her way down the length of the roof in the direction that Zazie ha come from, gravel strewn over the roof crunching quietly beneath her boots.

She reached the corner of the building and quickly scanned the intersection, looking down the streets in search of the quiet white-haired girl but felt her frustration only increase when she saw no sign of the girl anywhere. In the few seconds she had been distracted by the rolling blackout she had lost her.

Mana slowly clenched and unclenched one of her hands as she pondered how Zazie could have disappeared so quickly. Furthermore, Mana had been able to see the approaching electrical disturbance from her place on the roof but how was Zazie able to tell that something was going on from the sidewalk? The street she was on terminated after a couple of blocks so she shouldn't have been able to notice anything amiss until the disturbance was almost right on top of her.

Before she could think anymore on that particular problem she felt a cool prickling at the back of her neck. Immediately her combat-honed skills took over her body and she pivoted on her foot and dived across the roof towards a raised portion of the roof that housed the vents for the air conditioning system. Her hand pulled the Beretta from its holster in one quick and precise motion and Mana caught sight of a figure in a crouch just beyond another one of the vents across the roof. She could only make out a figure in black with a black balaclava obscuring their face except for cold and professional eyes. They held a stubby gun in a two handed grip and the suggested round shape of a suppressor at the end of the barrel was confirmed when the gun fired. The normal sharp rattle was much reduced but still loud enough to make the miko's ears ring. She could feel the passage of 9mm slugs tearing through the space she had been only a second before.

She didn't have time to fire off a shot herself; instead she pressed herself flat against the metal shape of the vent, drawing her arms and legs in to keep them out of the sub-machine gun's biting range. She did a quick calculation of her current cover against the penetration power of the assailant's weapon. It should serve its purpose for the moment, but chances are her attacker would be moving now to get into a better firing position.

Mana hurriedly holstered the Beretta. If she leaned out to take a shot now, at this distance and with their weapon, she'd get her head blown off. She looked quickly to either side looking for another piece of cover to make a run for and grimaced in frustration, the closest place was an access door to her left about fifteen feet away. The sub gun would cut her to pieces before she was even halfway there. Straining her ears to listen for any sounds that may give away the movements of her attacker, she looked down and saw the stones that had been scattered over the rooftop and a plan suddenly sprang to mind.

She scooped up a small handful of the stones and hefted them in her right hand, quickly taking in their general weight. She looked straight across to the small wall that lined the edge of the roof and did a quick estimate of distance before she came to her decision. She shifted her hand to move one of the stones between her thumb and forefinger.

Almost from birth Mana had been embroiled in conflict zones and unstable regions of the mundane world as well as the world of magic. During those years she had developed skills with guns and projectile weapons in general that went beyond the preternatural and entered the realm of the supernatural. She had shown some of her skills during the Budokai at the Festival and now it was time to use them again.

With a barely perceptible flick of her thumb she sent the stone flying at the wall across from her at a sub-sonic speed. There was a short and sharp crack as the stone connected and ricocheted around the corner of her cover. Already she was shifting her aim and sending another stone rocketing down the other side of her cover. Mana alternated back and forth between the sides of her cover, listening carefully for the sound the stones would make when they found their targets. She heard the distant cracks as the stones struck the wall opposite of her side of the roof or a metallic ting as they hit a jutting pipe or vent.

Then she heard it. A stone sent down the right side of her cover created a thunk as it struck something decidedly less rigid than metal or concrete. She immediately shot two more stones off the wall in that direction and was rewarded with a pair of solid strikes and a muffled grunt of pain. Rolling to her left she pulled the Desert Eagle from her holster, favoring its stopping power for a more close quarters encounter, and emerged at a crouch. She saw the figure still recoiling from being pelted by the stones and she raised the heavy pistol in both hands and fired.

The Desert Eagle was a roaring cannon compared to the rattling of the suppressed sub gun. Mana could hear the surprised shrieks and yells from civilians on the sidewalk below but she couldn't worry about that now, especially since the attacker's recoiling allowed him to dodge the first shot. The man immediately began to raise the sub gun again before Mana fired once more. The bullet struck the man in the shoulder and he gave a deeper grunt of pain and his body spun from the force of the slug. His finger depressed the trigger and the suppressed sub gun fired again, the cycling of the moving parts of the gun were actually louder than the shots themselves which went harmlessly up into the inky darkness of the night. Mana stroked the trigger once more but the man had already recovered his equilibrium and was diving for cover and her bullet missed its mark by a wide margin.

The man dove behind another of the raised vents but Mana was already moving at a low and quick crouch, angling towards the access door she had seen earlier, trying to get into a flanking position. The rounds she had loaded probably wouldn't kill her opponent but she had no doubt that if she tagged him enough he'd eventually give in. Movement over the top of the vent prompted her to take a dive for her new cover as the man turned the sub gun sideways over the top of the vent and engaged in Spray and Pray.

Mana pressed her back against the small structure, listening for bullet strikes. Amazingly all she heard was the cycling of the sub gun; apparently the man had missed her position completely. Waiting for the firing to stop she seized on his disorientation and was moving again, keeping her body in a low crouch to minimize herself as a target. Keeping her eyes focused on the area where the man had taken cover, she watched for even the slightest movement or sound that would betray his next actions, but instead she saw nothing. Thinking maybe he was changing his magazine she stepped up the pace, bringing the Eagle up into a firing position as she rounded the edge of the vent where he had been hiding behind, ready to order him to surrender or fire if he didn't.

Only the man wasn't there when she reached her flanking position.

Immediately Mana pressed herself against the vent and looked quickly around the roof. Beside the occasional vent and the access door there was little in the way to provide cover to he could've hidden behind. There were a pair of pipes rising from the center of the roof and running towards one end of the building but they weren't large enough for someone to hide a man.

When she found no evidence of the intruder immediately she began to make a deliberate and methodical search of the length of the roof, starting with the cover she had just left and moving on to the next. She kept her body low and the Eagle at the ready but by the time she had made a circuit of all the cover spots on the roof she realized that she was alone. Somehow the man had managed to flee in the few seconds between when he had stopped firing and she had left cover to flank him.

Mana let out a slow and shaky breath, her arms relaxed and she lowered the Eagle to point it to the roof but she didn't holster the pistol yet. Her ears were ringing from the gunshots and she worked her jaw to try and get her ears to pop and relieve the pressure, her dark-skinned arms began to tremble slightly as she released her focus and she allowed herself to succumb to the adrenaline rush that had come from the encounter.

Mana could still hear people on the sidewalk below, speaking excitedly among themselves and wondering what was going on. She continued to ignore them as she finally holstered the Eagle and removed the cell phone from the inside of her vest. Flipping it open she speed dialed the campus network and was answered on the first ring.

"What do you have to report, Tatsumiya-senpai?" A young female voice greeted her. It was Megumi Natsume or Nutmeg as she was called by some.

"I encountered an intruder. I'm unsure if they're involved with the current activity within the campus or not. I engaged them in a brief battle and struck them non-fatally. They somehow managed to escape." Mana swallowed her pride as she made the report, her failure at stopping the man gnawed in her stomach.

"Do you know where they fled to?"

"No." Mana admitted. "I checked the roof but I saw no sign of an exit point. They could've flown away." Mana wasn't being flippant. In her world such things were definitely possible. "He didn't strike me as one with talents beyond pure mundane training however. Still, it wouldn't do for us to let our guard down."

"Very true senpai," Nutmeg concurred. Mana could hear sirens in the distance but they didn't seem to be approaching her position. "It sounds like I should move to a new position soon. The police are on their way."

"You should but I don't believe that's related to you, senpai." Nutmeg began. "Apparently there was an incident of violence at the campus hospital only a few minutes ago. We're still gathering details so we're not certain if it's related to what's been already been going on but it would be quite a coincidence if it wasn't."

Mana frowned into the phone. "Yes it would and I don't believe in coincidences." The miko looked out over the campus town and sighed softly. "I'm going to a sweep of the roof and look for evidence about who this intruder might have been and then I'll relocate before the police get here. That's all I have to report. Mana out." She terminated the call and took a brief look around the roof again.

She couldn't see where the man could have come up onto the roof conventionally without leaving himself wide open. He could have arrived from the roof of an adjacent building but there was next to nothing to be used as cover so he would've been wide open on the approach and Mana would have sensed his arrival.

_Are you sure about that? You lost Zazie easily enough._

Mana grimaced and pushed the thoughts away. She could beat herself up over screw ups later. Instead she decided to focus on her search which so far was only giving her more questions than answers. So far it seemed the only way the man could have arrived on the roof with her was the same way he left it: by flying.

A search for shell casings came next and seeing as the man had been using a sub gun they should've been quite abundant. The only problem was that Mana couldn't seem to find any.

The man had had the bearing of a professional about him and probably would've gone through the trouble of picking up casings after his work. But Mana had a hard time imagining the man going through the trouble of doing that when he knew he hadn't yet neutralized his target and there was no way he could've picked up all the shells he had lost when he fired blindly at her from cover before disappearing himself. Mana considered the possibility that he was using some form of caseless ammunition as a reason for the lack of shells lying around on the roof and found that while she didn't feel quite satisfied with that answer she was grateful to have on after all the other questions she had from the encounter.

She heard another set of sirens join the chorus of the first and these were approaching her position. It was time to leave. The miko made sure to gather her own shells from the rooftop, dropping them into a pocket of her vest before she made good her escape. She vaulted over the edge of the roof and fell to the narrow alley between the businesses. Her dark fatigues, skin and hair helped the girl blend in with the many shadows that lurked in the space between the buildings and she turned and fled deeper into the alley, away from the sidewalk and the chattering crowd of pedestrians that had gathered there.


	11. The First Night: Closing

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another long lull between chapters. Again you have my apologies but I've had a lot of things to deal with over the last few months. Not the least of which was a couple of minor, if still quite painful, medical issues and other distractions aplenty.**

**Plain old fashioned laziness can't even be wholly blamed, since I've had the first few paragraphs of this chapter written for months but had a devil of a time finding a way to put the rest of it into words. It's only within the last couple of weeks that I've been able to churn out the rest of the chapter. Sometimes writing for me runs hot and sometimes it runs cold. As of late it's been freezing. **

**I know some of you are frustrated with the slow publish date of this story and, believe me; I get pretty frustrated too with my unreliable ability to actually get my thoughts out and onto paper.**

**I'm not really in a position to make requests of you, seeing as how I keep you waiting for so long, but I'd like to see more reviews from readers. This isn't just a plea for ego massaging but I'd really like to know what you think of the story. Tell me what you like. Tell me what you _don't_ like. Tell me what you would like to see more of. Help me make this a better story.**

**Well enough of my yammering. On with the show.**

**The First Night:**

**Closing**

It was days like this one when Chisame had her suspicions confirmed: She was surrounded by freaks and weirdoes. And it turns out that some of them are even freakier than she expected.

While she had been as disgusted as most of the rest of her class at the grotesque video from that morning she didn't feel quite as much surprise as some of the other girls had expressed. Perhaps it was a testament to just how ingrained her cynicism was that she didn't think such a cruel prank was so beyond Satomi.

_The freak was a little mad scientist. What did they expect? _Chisame thought to herself.

Was? Why was she using the past tense?

_Because after a stunt like that she's sure to be expelled. If there's any justice that's what will happen anyway._

Satisfied with that bit of reasoning the hacker girl exhaled in a long and slow sigh. Her slender fingers resumed dancing across the keyboard of her omnipresent laptop, which lay open on the table she occupied in the corner of the common room. Her back to the wall and the computer positioned in a way so none of her fellow students could see that she was working on the colorful and flirtatious web page of a net idol that, upon close inspection, bore an uncanny resemblance to the 3-A's resident grumpy computer nerd.

Not that she had much to worry about in regards to being spied on now. It was getting late and most of the girls had begun to drift up to their dorm rooms in little groups. Still it didn't hurt to be too cautious in regards to her little secret. Her homeroom teacher had already discovered her secret identity and a few of the other girls were as privy to her secret life as she was to her teacher's identity as a wizard. If he could keep her secret, she may as well return the favor and keep his.

Chisame sensed someone approaching her self-imposed island of exile. The hacker girl maintained her mask of cool indifference though her teeth ground together lightly in anticipation of being bothered by one of her classmates. Chisame's ordinarily cool and downright unfriendly disposition meant there were few girls who would approach her voluntarily outside the classroom on issues that didn't pertain to school. And most of those who would did so simply because they all shared the experience of being in on their teacher's true nature and being one of Negi's Pactio partners. The memory of how she had gained her own abilities brought a rose-colored blush, unbidden, to her ordinarily pale features.

"Oh ho. What's got you blushing so much, Chisame?"

The steady, staccato rhythm of her typing nearly faltered but it was her continuing blush that betrayed the girl's embarrassment and anxiety. Of the few that would approach her, Kazumi was the one she came close to actually fearing. The shutterbug was notorious for being able to find information on just about anyone if she really put her mind to it and one day Chisame feared that she'd find her secret life as a net idol exposed in the school paper for the entire student body to ridicule and laugh at.

"I'm not blushing, Asakura. I just have a summer cold." Chisame answered. Her fingers never left the keyboard and her red-brown eyes never lifted from the laptop's screen to face her visitor.

"Really? Sorry to hear that." Kazumi didn't sound very sorry to Chisame and, much to the hacker's chagrin, the redhead proceeded to pull out a chair from the table and help herself to a seat without invitation. Chisame grimaced, bile from her rising agitation leaving a bitter taste in the back of her mouth.

"Is there something I can help you with, Asakura?" Chisame continued to keep her eyes focused on the computer screen in front of her. She held some vain hope that if she refused to look at her visitor that they would ultimately give up and walk away.

"Actually yes. I have a favor to ask of you, Chisame."

This finally caught the hacker's attention, her eyes lifting to look over the top of her laptop at Kazumi. The _paparazzo _smiled enigmatically back at her, her hands folded neatly together over a small digital camera carrying case. Something about her expression and demeanor left Chisame feeling distinctly uneasy. Dealing with gossipers and newshounds was tricky business and Chisame didn't think Kazumi would approach her for a favor unless she had something she could use over her.

"And just what kind of favor are you asking for, Asakura?"

A creeping, tingling sensation raised the hairs on the back of her neck and suddenly Chisame felt the certainty that someone was looking over her shoulder. She was seated against the wall to prevent such idle peeking however so what could be doing it. Suddenly she remembered Kazumi's ghostly friend and she did her best to suppress a shiver of unease.

As casually as possible, Chisame reached out to grip the top of her laptop and pull the screen down towards the keyboard to hide her current project. She saw some of the shine leave Kazumi's eyes but the other girl did a fine job otherwise of keeping her smile in place and hiding her disappointment.

"Well, Chisame," Kazumi began without acknowledging her failed attempt at information scrounging. "I was taking some pictures for an article for the school paper today and some of them have turned out badly for some reason." She sighed a little. "So I thought maybe you'd be able to touch them up for me. Seeming as you'd have a lot of experience with fixing up photos."

"What do you mean by that?" Chisame asked. Her tone was a little sharper than she had intended and she reached up to fidget with the large lenses of her glasses to hide a grimace.

Some of the twinkle returned to Kazumi's eyes and her smile twitched at the corners as if threatening to turn into a full-blown grin. "I didn't mean anything, Chisame." She lied. "Just that you're always working with computers so I thought you'd know your way around picture programs. Am I wrong?"

"You'd know more about pictures than me. You're always running around and taking them, Asakura."

"I can take pictures but I don't know anything about touching them up." Again, the redhead's smile seemed to hint that she knew much more than she was letting on. Chisame wasn't sure if Kazumi did know about her extensive photo shopping expertise but it was better to be safe than sorry in this case. She didn't have any illusions that actually having Kazumi owe her a favor would do her any real good but she could use the opportunity to find out how much the _paparazzo _actually knew about her secret.

Offering a resigned sigh Chisame extended her hand across the table, palm up. "Let me see what I can do."

Kazumi grinned, slipped the camera from its carrying case, and removed the memory card. Chisame placed the card in one of her laptop's ports, flipped the computer back open, and began to boot up Photo Shock. When she saw Kazumi get up from her chair to move towards her end of the table she made a concerted effort to close her web page down to prevent any possible spying.

"So what exactly is the problem, Asakura?" Chisame asked idly, making a game attempt at actually sounding interested in Kazumi's issue though the impassive tone of her voice robbed her of the opportunity.

"Curb your enthusiasm." Kazumi murmured with a wry grin before she continued. "I was taking pictures of an old schoolhouse and clock tower when I noticed something darkening part of the building. You'll see for yourself soon enough."

Chisame did.

A dark and murky haze seemed to cling to the main body of the schoolhouse in Kazumi's picture, though the adjoining clock tower and surrounding scenery seemed free of the anomaly. A subsequent picture of the clock tower by itself, its hands pointed at noon (or midnight) showed no hint of the darkness that clung to the schoolhouse body. In the next picture, it had returned, again remaining around the schoolhouse. The hacker girl's brow furrowed in puzzlement and she copied the pictures with the darkness to her hard drive before attempting to run them through her photo program.

Attempts at using filters only left a brighter area of murkiness. Trying to brighten up the picture still left the details of the main building obscured while washing out the rest of the photo. It was while Chisame was trying to apply another filter when she noticed something glimmering within the murk, almost as if the camera flash had caught a reflective surface. It emanated from one of the ruined windows of the building, the source somewhere inside. In the shadow.

"I guess it's no surprise you noticed that too."

Kazumi's statement made the hacker blink in surprise and she masked a blush of embarrassment at having found herself engrossed in the strangeness of the other girl's photos despite her initial disinterest.

"I'll blow it up and try to get a better look." Chisame highlighted the shattered portal and enlarged it but all that accomplished was a hazy field of pixilated darkness with a small field of brightness within. The shape seemed somewhat familiar to the hacker, somehow, but she couldn't place it exactly. The enlarged quality of the picture, coupled with the strange omnipresent darkness kept identification of the shape out of reach.

"Can you clean them up?" Kazumi asked the question as if she already knew the answer.

Chisame shrugged. "Sure. Given some time probably."

Kazumi grinned and pushed herself up from the table. "Great. I need them cleaned up and back to me by Sunday if you please. Just e-mail them to the school paper, ATTN: Asakura."

"Wait a second." Chisame turned to face Kazumi as the reporter got up from the table. "Why should I do this for you anyway?"

"Well if you don't clear those pictures up the article will have to run a little shorter than planned." Her brown eyes shined as she continued. "And to fill up the space I'll have to run a small story about that girl who competed in the Cosplay Show at Mahora Fest. In addition, how she suffered a costume malfunction while on stage in front of everybody. And then speculate whether it really was an accident or a calculated attempt to gain lots of attention for her."

Chisame felt her grow hot with embarrassment and, remembering her earlier excuse, hurriedly brought her hand up to her mouth and began to cough into it. The act wasn't as hard as it looked since she actually felt like choking at the potential fallout such a revelation would cause.

"Hmmm, seems like your summer cold's getting worse, Chisame. You don't have to get to work on anything tonight. Why don't you take it easy?" Kazumi grinned and winked before turning to walk away from the table. Chisame glowered after the _paparazzo_, wondering if she could feel the daggers burrowing into her back and decided she didn't really care now.

While still staring after Kazumi she saw Negi and a few of the other girls from her class come into the dorms through the front entrance. Chisame hadn't even been aware that they had left in the first place. She saw the redheaded reporter hurry over to begin chatting with the group, no doubt trying to weasel some information out of them over something or another.

With a sigh, Chisame turned her attention back to the open laptop and picture of the old schoolhouse. There was more she could try to clean these pictures up but, truth be told, she didn't feel like doing any work on them tonight. Perhaps it was her way of spiting Kazumi by putting off doing the work until another date. Still, if she didn't want the whole school to know about the incident at the cosplay competition she'd have to deliver on the pictures.

A glance at the clock in the corner of her computer screen told her that it was starting to get late. A quick glance up showed that commons had mostly emptied out. Even Negi, Kazumi and the others were nowhere in sight. The hacker girl decided to take her leave as well, saving her progress on the photos before closing up the laptop and tucking it beneath her arm, carrying the small computer with her up the stairs and into her dorm room.

* * *

Ayaka heard the thud of feet running past her dorm's door yet again and did her best to suppress a rapidly growing sense of irritation. This day had been trying enough with Satomi's grotesque prank and now she's got to deal with students making a ruckus out in the hall. A glance at the clock told her it was nearly ten and she felt that seed of frustration grow a little more.

"Honestly!" Ayaka huffed as she cast a glance at the door, the muffled thumping of running feet receding into the distance again. "They should be getting ready for bed by now!"

"Or studying?" Chizuru suggested as she looked up from an open textbook as she sat across from the class representative. Ayaka turned back to her roommate and nodded before turning her attention back to her own book.

At the kitchenette, Natsumi was finishing cleaning up the dishes from their dinner, buffing the plates with a small dishtowel. "I think it's a good thing in this case. Maybe it means everybody's getting over what happened this morning."

"Please, let's not mention that anymore than we have to." Ayaka sighed, raising one hand to press against her forehead. "I'll give Satomi a proper punishment when the time comes."

"Isn't that Negi-sensei's responsibility? And the school's?" Chizuru questioned.

"It is," Ayaka agreed. "But I fear Negi-sensei may be too kind-hearted to deal out the punishment such a horrible trick deserves." She sighed again, much more softly this time, and her lips curled into a dreamy smile. "But that's what makes him such a wonderful sensei for us."

Chizuru and Natsumi shared a quick glance in Ayaka's moment of not-so-subtle admiration. The class representative's near obsessive devotion and yearning for their homeroom teacher was often a topic of quiet and wondering conversation between them and other girls in the class.

"Well I think it's because of that," Chizuru began after she looked away from Natsumi towards their love struck roommate. "That Negi-sensei will probably insist that you leave discipline up to him and the school, Ayaka."

"I think it's good that people are playing around. It means that they're getting over what happened today." Natsumi retook her seat at the small table the other girls were sitting around, opening her textbook back to the section they were studying.

"Well maybe they could recover in their dorm rooms instead of up and down the hallway. They have to think about how they represent our class to the other students that live in these dorms." The blonde-haired girl sniffed and reached out to take a sip from her glass.

As if on cue, the muffled thunder of what sounded like several pairs of feet began their thudding and stumbling trek from one end of the hall to the other. As the sound grew closer to their dorm room the padding rhythm of the runners seemed to falter and the louder, more solid sound, of a body falling greeted the girls, the vibration of the fall felt through the floor where they sat at the table.

Ayaka slapped her pen down on the table, "That is it!" She pushed herself up from the table and strode towards the door. Swinging the door open, the class representative stepped forward, eyes turned down to the fallen students, ready to berate them about their rowdy behavior.

"Do you know what time--" Ayaka began but what she saw made her prepared reprimand fall short. Or rather, it's what she didn't see.

The hallway was empty.

Ayaka slowly closed her mouth, her lips curling downwards into a puzzled frown. She leaned forward out into the hallway and looked quickly up and down its length. She spied a pair of students walking down an intersection at the far end of the hall but they clearly hadn't been in the hallway she had heard someone running and then fall only seconds before.

"Ayaka, what is it?" Chizuru asked from within the room. The class representative turned to look back at her roommates who regarded her with the same look of puzzlement and confusion that she was feeling herself.

"Nothing." She murmured before she gave a snort and a quick toss of her hair, quickly doing her best to try to banish the sudden uneasiness that swept over her. "They must have known I was in this room and ran away as quick as they could." She nodded once and stepped back into the room closing the door behind her.

In the hall, beyond the closed door and out of the sight of the girls within the room, the lights overhead flickered once.

* * *

_Tap. Tap. Taptaptap._

Fumika's eyes opened to the darkness that filled the room. A quick glance at the bright LED display of the clock on her bedside table revealed it was nearly midnight. The girl felt a brief moment of disorientation, the kind that usually comes with a sudden awakening from sleep, before she began to search the darkness with eyes still slightly clouded with dreams. Something had woken her up. But what was it?

Fumika clutched her blanket and drew it up higher towards her chin, almost moving to duck underneath it. The hazy confusion of wakening began to melt away, replaced by a slow and creeping sense of fear. The images from the video that morning came back to her, unbidden, and she felt her heart began to beat a little faster in her chest.

What if it wasn't a joke? What if it had really happened?

Fumika strained to listen in the dark, trying to pick out the soft breath of her twin and their roommate Kaede. Instead, she could hear nothing. Even as her eyes adjusted to the inky shadows that filled the room it seemed to her like she was seeing less. The outlines of furniture within the room seemed less defined than they should have. Instead, it seemed like she was surrounded by only the vaguest ideas of what chairs and tables looked like than actual pieces of furniture.

_Tap. Tap. Taptaptap._

The sudden sound made Fumika almost gasp in surprise. Instead, the younger twin clutched the edge of the blanket more tightly, holding it close against her form. Her head turned to the left and right from where she still left it on the pillow, seeking out the source of the sound. Was that what had woken her up just a few seconds ago?

"O-Oneechan," Fumika called out quietly into the dark.

"I'm here, Fumika." Fuka replied immediately from the top bed of the bunk bed the twins shared.

Hearing the familiar sound of her older sister's voice brought a wave or relief to the younger girl. "Oneechan," She murmured. "How long have you been up?"

"Just a few minutes." Fuka answered. Fumika wasn't certain but she thought she could detect a hint of relief in her elder twin's voice as well. "I don't know what it is but something woke me up."

Fumika nodded in the darkness, and then remembered that her sister couldn't possibly see her and spoke up. "Yeah, I think it was some kind of…tapping." She grew quiet and listened. She wasn't sure what she was listening for, but she thought that maybe talking about it would prompt another performance but that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, she began to speak again, "Is Kaede in her bed? I don't hear her."

"She might be." Fuka whispered back to her sister. "But I don't want to wake her up just because we heard a noise and got scared." There was a pause as if the girl had said too much before she continued her voice a little firmer. "We're supposed to be grown-ups. I know Kaede wouldn't make fun of us but…" She didn't finish the sentence, letting her twin fill in the blanks for her.

_Tap. Tap. Taptaptap._

Fumika felt her throat tighten as the sharp, rhythmic beat of the tapping sounded out in the dark room once more. She heard her gasp mirrored in her twin overhead. Where was that sound coming from? And why was it bothering her and her sister so badly? It was a simple sound and could be anything from the building settling to tree branches tapping the window.

Except that, there were no trees outside their window.

The more she thought on it the more she realized that the sound was of something tapping against their dorm room window.

_Tap. Tap. Taptaptap._

The sound came again, much more quickly than it had before and Fumika felt the hairs on the back of her neck and arms rise in an ancient and instinctual signal of danger. Somehow, there was something wrong with the sound itself. Fumika sat up in her bed, the covers thrown off her slender form, and she turned to look over her shoulder at the window set into the wall on the other side of the room. The curtains were drawn over the portal and she wondered what could be on the other side making the noise and suppressed a shiver. She heard a rustling of covers and knew that her sister had roused herself as well.

However, she felt stupid and, even worse, childish, for thinking so, she couldn't help but think of that short beat of taps as inherently wrong. But the hairs on her neck and arms refused to relax and something deep within her young mind told her that this was more than wrong. It was evil.

"What do you think it is, oneechan?" Fumika asked her sister in the dark. She saw a pair of slender legs dangle off the edge of the bunk bed over her own before Fuka slipped nimbly down onto the floor.

"Maybe it's somebody playing a prank." Fuka answered, the young girl's eyes turned towards the curtains that hung over the window. "Or maybe some boy's trying to get a girl's attention but he's got the wrong room." Fuka turned to look at her younger twin and grinned playfully. To her credit, it was almost convincing.

Fumika frowned and turned to put her feet on the floor. She felt the carpet, soft and thick, beneath her bare feet and the girl curled her toes against the fabric in a scrunching fashion. Somehow, the sensation of the fibers between her toes helped calm her. "How would he be doing that? We're on the third floor, oneechan."

Fuka raised one hand and mimed throwing something. "With pebbles silly." She smiled. "Haven't you ever watched any grown up movies, Fumika?" She reached out and gripped her younger twin's nose firmly between her thumb and forefinger, tugging on it playfully, prompting a small and muffled squeak from Fumika. "I forgot. You still watch the little kid shows like Hamtaro."

Fumika twisted her nose free from her sister's grasp and reached up to rub at her pinched nose gently with one hand before shooting an accusatory glare over her hands. "You like to watch it too, oneechan."

Fuka crossed her arms over her stomach. "That's just because I don't want you to feel like you're the only girl left in our class who still likes little kiddy shows."

"I'm not." Fumika insisted. "Makie likes to watch them too."

_Tap. Tap. Taptaptap._

The twins immediately fell silent. Fumika watched her elder sister turn to look at the covered window once more. The girl drew herself up straighter, her slender hands balling into fists at her sides before she began to slowly walk towards the window. Fuka stared after her in silent terror before she moved after her twin, albeit with much less confidence.

"Oneechan!" Fumika hissed, her voice quiet but trembling with urgency. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go tell that boy he's got the wrong window." Fuka declared. Her voice had lost much of the strength it had only moments ago and even in the darkness Fumika could make out the slender shape of her sister trembling in the darkness as she stepped closer to the curtains that were drawn over the window.

"Stop!" Fumika squeaked. Tears began to sting the corners of her eyes and she brought her hands up in front of her, clasping them together tightly over her chest. "Please, Oneechan! I…I don't want to know what's doing it! If we find out, something bad will happen! I know it!"

"We can't be frightened forever." Fuka's voice was small and carried a soft tremor of fright but the girl showed no signs of stopping. "I'm tired of being treated like a kid."

She stood in front of the curtains and took a deep breath before she began to reach for them with a small, pale hand. Fumika bit back a sob, her own hands reaching out to grasp her elder sister's shoulders. She could feel the tremble of fear now, and while she squeezed tight to her twin's frame, she didn't try to stop her. Her eyes wide and fixed on the other girl's fingers as they inched towards the cloth separating them from the source of the tapping.

A broad rectangle of light spread across the twins' backs and the curtain as the door to the hallway came open. The sudden influx of light combined with the sound of the door brought surprised squeals from both of the girls and they spun immediately to face this newfound source of terror. Instead of a fearsome night beast or demon they found, instead, the tall and familiar shape of their roommate: Kaede Nagase.

"Oh? You two are up, eh?" Kaede murmured with her ever-present smile. "I forgot something down in the baths so I had to go get it." She held up a small basket of soap. "Hope I didn't wake you two when I left."

Fumika and her sister clutched each other in wide-eyed silence, their gaze fixed on the tall girl before they broke their embrace only to run to Kaede and throw their arms around their roommate's waist. Kaede opened one of her eyes in puzzlement when she felt their arms wrap around her, their grip almost painfully tight, before her eye closed once more and she set the basket of soaps aside, resting one hand lightly on the head of either twin.

"Hey, hey. It's alright. What happened while I was gone?" Kaede asked softly, looking down at the top of the girl's heads as they nuzzled against her sides.

"We…" Fumika began before her twin cut her off.

"We just had a bad dream that's all." Fuka looked across Kaede's stomach at her sister and they exchanged a brief nod. They wouldn't mention the tapping. At least for now.

"Ah, I thought so." Kaede nodded. Her voice held no patronizing tone or derision at the girls' explanation. "Well, if you want we can all sleep on the futon tonight, hmm?"

Fuka and Fumika both nodded with grateful smiles for their roommate and moved to gather up their pillows and blankets as Kaede spread the futon out to accommodate the twins in addition to herself.

The twins never looked at the window. And, for the rest of the night, there was no more tapping.

* * *

It had been a long and eventful day. From the goings on at class and then that bizarre and frightening episode at Library Island and then spending most of the night helping Yue look for information about what could be going on Nodoka should be exhausted.

But for some reason, the young librarian just couldn't go to sleep.

Yue had used the _Orbis Sensualium Pictus _to look for information on spells that dealt with fear but the amount of information that had uncovered was staggering. Nodoka and the others agreed that without information that was more specific it would be very difficult for them to find anything that would be of use. They decided to take down some basic information about fear spells and the like just so that they wouldn't come away form their efforts empty-handed.

Haruna had suggested that they broaden their search to include beings of various kinds that used fear but that had only uncovered even more information. Yue had book marked several entries that looked like they could be of possible use before moving on to different areas.

They had only recently decided to call it a night, at close to midnight it was a bit later than usual the girls, and Yue and Haruna had seemed to have no trouble going to sleep. So why was she still lying in her bed, wide-awake, almost an hour after her friends?

Nodoka thought she knew the answer. Despite all the assurances she gave her friends and Negi, she was still very disturbed by what had happened that day. More so by what had happened at the library than the more obviously horrible images from the video. The sense of fear, and outright terror that had enveloped her within the bookshelves had seemed much more personal and intense than the revulsion she had shared with everyone else in the class at Satomi's gleeful self-destruction.

What bothered her even more about the experience at Library Island was that it hadn't seemed to affect either Yue or Haruna at all. In the end, it had left Nodoka feeling frightened and foolish. While she knew her friends didn't think she was making it up or being hysterical there was a stubborn remnant of her old, less confident self, that insisted they must think she's some kind of crybaby.

Nodoka breathed a short, soft sigh, her eyes staring up at the bottom of the bunk bed overhead. The quiet sounds of her roommates' slumber, combined with the ambient sounds of late night, created a subtle and whispering orchestra that should have lulled the young librarian to sleep. Instead, she found her eyes wandering over the shadowy outlines of furniture, imagining looming and threatening figures out of mundane objects.

Now she knew she was being over sensitive. It was human nature to pick out patterns and give a more defined shape to vague outlines. After all that had happened that day it's no wonder that she'd see malevolent and frightening images in the things around her.

Nodoka closed her eyes and took in a slow breath, filling her lungs with the night air and holding it while she counted to ten. She filled her mind's eye with images of fuzzy white sheep, a small boat rising and falling on the waves and any other relaxing image she could think of before she let the breath go in a long and heavy sigh.

Somewhere, in the darkness, she heard the soft and breathy sound of her sigh echoed.

Immediately Nodoka's eyes opened and her next breath froze in her throat. She strained her ears to listen, head lifting from her pillow as she scanned the darkness. She could see no one else within the room and the gentle sounds of Yue and Haruna's breathing continued unabated.

Nodoka felt a shiver run through her that had nothing to do with the slightly chill air of the dorm room. She lowered her head back onto the pillow and drew the covers more tightly against her body. The sound could've been her own or perhaps one of her roommates sighing in their sleep. It happens sometimes. She felt her heart begin to slow and she allowed herself another slow and deep breath in a further attempt to soothe her nerves.

_"Hey."_

Nodoka felt her once calming breath leave her in a rush of fear and surprise at the single, whispered word. Her heart thudded heavily in her chest once more and she gripped the edge of her blankets with white-knuckled fingers. She kept her eyes focused on the bottom of the bunk bed over her, not wanting to take her eyes away from it to look through the room, scared that she might see a figure standing in the darkness that hadn't been there moments before. It had to be someone else because the voice didn't belong to either Yue or Haruna.

She thought on that voice, that word, even though a part of her wanted very much not to. The voice had been too soft to identify as a man or a woman's. And while it had been close, enough for her to make out the word, she couldn't tell where, exactly, the voice had originated. The bunk bed pressed against a wall so that eliminated one direction.

Passing her tongue nervously over her lips, Nodoka slowly closed her eyes once more, taking in another slow breath. She must have been more on edge than she thought. Though she thought, she had remembered reading something about when people were half in and half out of dream state that they could suffer minor visual and auditory hallucinations. Maybe she was actually drifting off to sleep now.

_"Hey."_

Nodoka felt her stomach do a somersault, her throat flexing as she bit back a whimper of fright. She loosened her grip on the blanket only to slip her hands beneath the covers, pushing the blanket higher over her quivering form. She forced herself to open her eyes and turn her head on her pillow, eyes wide as they scanned the shadowy room, seeking out anything that could be out of place but found only the familiar. There was their table, a small television, a bookcase filled with volumes, Haruna's small art corner where she did her doujin work, and the small kitchenette area in the far wall.

"Who's there?" Nodoka called out, her voice sounded softer and more fragile to her than it had for a long time, her voice pitching high and almost breaking on the last word.

Her eyes continued searching when no answer immediately came. Eventually her eyes came around to look down the length of her bed, past the small mound of her blanket-covered feet towards the entrance of their dorm room and the closet set into the wall just beyond it.

_"I am."_

There. Nodoka felt her entire body tensing as she sensed something in the darkness beyond the foot of her bed. She didn't see any movement but she could definitely _feel_ something there. Watching her. And she was almost certain that that was where the voice was originating.

She stared into the darkness for what seemed like an eternity but couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Then she carefully lowered her head back onto the pillow, face turned up to look at the bottom of Yue's bunk once more, and began to draw the covers up over her face and head. She placed the inside of her wrists firmly against her eyes, closing them against the skin as she struggled to keep her breathing slow and steady. She must be dreaming. She must be already asleep and having some kind of bad dream. Nothing's here in the room with her and her friends. Nothing's speaking to her from the shadows.

_"Nodoka…"_

Surprising herself, the librarian sat up in her bed, throwing her covers forward and towards the foot of the bed. Her chest rising and falling in shuddering gasp of panic and fear, she reached for the lamp on the table by her bed and quickly flicked it on. Electric light flooded the room but Nodoka was already rolling out of bed and onto her feet, moving quickly away from the bunk beds. She could hear her roommates stirring awake from light and the noise of her movements but she didn't care.

Despite the presence of light and the now wakefulness of her friends she still felt her body trembling with fright. Nodoka stalked around to the foot of the bunk beds only to find nothing there. She moved quickly to the nearby closet and pulled the door open, flicking on the light inside in the process and crouching to look beneath the hanging dresses and outfits.

"Nodoka, what's wrong?" Yue murmured sleepily from the top bunk. Haruna had already gotten her glasses and was sitting up from the futon she slept on.

"Something's here." Nodoka answered before she shut the closet door and resumed looking around the room. By now, Yue and Haruna had fully roused themselves and were watching her with quiet concern.

"What's here, Nodoka?" Haruna asked. When the purple-haired librarian continued her furtive movement around the room without answering Haruna got up from her futon and approached her. "Nodoka, what's the matter? What happened?"

When Haruna approached her Nodoka stopped, turning quickly to face her friend. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears, she quickly looked down, and away, raising one hand to rub at her eyes as if trying to remove the last bits of sleep from them.

"Oh… Paru, I thought I heard something." She looked back up to her and then up towards Yue who was frowning with concern. "I'm sorry. I must have just been having a bad dream or something. It's silly for me to be acting this way, I know."

"No it isn't." Yue said firmly. "You're not being silly, Nodoka. We all know something strange is going on around here and you're not the only one that's seeing or hearing things. Maybe we should go tell Negi-sensei."

"No." Nodoka shook her head. "I'm fine… Really." She looked from Yue to Haruna and back. "I don't want to trouble Negi-sensei when he's got so many other things to worry about already." When she saw Yue ready to protest she simply shook her head again. "I _will_ tell Negi-sensei. But it can wait until tomorrow."

Nodoka smiled. "I can see that you two are okay and that's enough for me. So, maybe I'll just keep my lamp on tonight. Is that alright with you two?"

Haruna grinned and gave Nodoka a brief hug. "No problem here, Nodoka."

Yue simply nodded and gave her a small smile. "The light doesn't bother me, Nodoka. Don't worry about it."

Nodoka's smile grew. "Thanks you two." She wished Haruna and Yue goodnight once more and crawled back into her bed, straightening the covers before she adjusted her lamp to the lowest setting. The light was much softer but still managed to cover the area around her bed in dappled patches of yellow.

And while she heard Yue and Haruna slowly drift back into slumber it still took Nodoka a long time to go to sleep.

* * *

"You were great tonight, sempai."

"As were you, Kasuga. I can see that all that extra practice you've put in has not been wasted." Eiko responded with a bit more warmth than she normally would. She could see Naoya's eyes brighten a little and she thought he did a commendable job of not blushing.

Eiko hefted her gym bag against her back as she walked at Naoya's side. The pair had just left the gym where they had been training for the fall dodge ball championships. Eiko, captain of the Black Lilies, was confident of her own abilities but, remembering her loss to a bunch of Jr. High girls a little more than a year ago, told her that overconfidence was a surefire recipe for defeat. So she had gone back to training regularly and found an adequate training partner in Naoya when either Bibi or Shii were unavailable.

Besides, she thought to herself, he was kind of cute for an underclassman.

Practice had gone a little longer than usual that night and by the time the pair had left the gym it was nearly midnight. The late hour wasn't a problem for Eiko, who would often stay out late when it came to training and practice, but seeing as she had agreed to practice with Naoya she wondered if that might give the wrong impression.

"You don't have to walk me back to the dorms, Kasuga. It's pretty late and you probably have to be back to your own dorms before long." She gave her companion a sidelong glance, wondering if he'd take the hint.

"Oh, it's not a problem, sempai." Naoya answered with a smile. "The St. Ursula dorms are on the way to mine and," He paused as if considering his words before continuing. "I've heard that there have been strange things going on around the campus lately. So I want to make sure you get back to the dorms safely."

Eiko blinked once and glanced away for a moment, not trusting the shadows of night to completely the mask the faint hint of color that graced her cheeks. His display of concern for her was unexpected but, surprisingly, it felt good. She turned her attention back to him and offered him a smile in return. "Thank you, Kasuga. I appreciate it."

Now that he had mentioned it, Eiko remembered Shii saying something about people hearing strange things around the dorm and there was talk of ghost stories and other strange goings on. Eiko was used to such things but they usually started around autumn and that was still a month or so away. Still, there's no reason for stories like that to start circulating a little early this year.

The streets seemed sparsely populated for some reason. Even this late at night it wasn't unusual to see some people still walking towards one destination or another. Instead, there seemed to be only her and Naoya. She shook off the feeling of strangeness, telling herself that she was just noticing it because of what Naoya had said and that there was nothing unusual about it at all.

They continued their way back to the dorms, taking a path through a small business district. Considering her recent thoughts and Naoya's concerns it seemed a more appropriate path than a more scenic, if sparsely lit, path through the parks and walking trails that wound their way through the campus. Despite her initial misgivings the high school girl found herself stepping a little closer to the underclassman, finding his presence reassuring somehow. She felt momentarily silly about it but decided she'd rather feel silly than put herself in a vulnerable situation.

In the distance Eiko could see the Science Building rising into the night sky. The building was hard to miss, being one of the tallest structures on campus, and befitting its name sported a sleek and streamlined, almost futuristic, design. Ordinarily the structure could only be identified as a darker shadow against the night sky but tonight there appeared to be a number of people burning the midnight oil.

Small, neat squares of light-filled windows could be seen in a number of the floors of the building even at this distance. She couldn't help but find the sight of so many offices lit strange, especially considering the late hour. Mahorafest had already come and gone and while the Engineering Dept. had done a tremendous job with the Mages vs. Martians battle game on the last day she couldn't think of any upcoming events that would require them to be working so late.

Ahead, on the corner of the street, the lamp standing vigil there flickered and grew dark. Eiko felt a brief chill run down her spine as a sense of unease came over her though she had no idea why. Lights often turned off at scheduled periods to save energy.

"Help…"

Eiko came to a halt immediately with Naoya stopping not soon after. He looked down at her with his eyebrows raised n a silent question, as if asking her if she heard someone too. The voice had been faint but she could tell it had been a girl's voice and it wasn't that far away.

Eiko opened her mouth, ready to ask Naoya if he had in fact heard the voice as well when it called out again. It was still faint, and carried a quavering quality of weakness that added urgency to the voice that it would have lacked compared to a scream.

"Help me…"

"There _is_ someone." Naoya murmured, confirming that he had heard it the first time. "I think they're down there." He nodded toward a narrow alley and stepped past Eiko to peer down the entrance. She hurried to join him and she heard a low and trembling moan of pain or fright, perhaps both, and she felt another shiver run up and down her spine.

There was scant light on the street due to the lamp that had gone out only moments ago and the depths of the alley was shrouded in near total darkness. The huddled shapes of garbage bags and the larger, blockier shadows of dumpsters were easily identifiable but the source of the voice was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you sure you heard them down here, Kasuga?" Eiko asked quietly. Almost as if on cue, the quiet moan arose once more. Eiko felt like the moan wasn't quite the sound of someone in pain or fear. Instead, it seemed to her a sound of anticipation. The tickle of unease that had been running up and down her spine settled in her stomach and turned into a small ball of ice.

"Hello?" Naoya called out into the alley. There was the sound of movement and then a soft and breathy sigh. The sound made Eiko's skin crawl but she couldn't quite understand why. She looked at Naoya but he seemed all right. Was it just her?

"Help…" The voice called again. It was definitely coming from within the alley. A young girl's voice. "Someone please…" The last word ended with a quiet choke, as if the author of the voice was on the verge of tears.

Naoya began to step into the alleyway and Eiko gave a start before she whispered. "What are you doing, Kasuga?"

"Someone's hurt sempai." He answered simply; he gave her a brief and questioning glance that shortly left the high school girl feeling guilty and ashamed. Why was she feeling so bad about this?

She didn't know why but there was no denying that something about the situation was decidedly wrong. She felt another shiver and she briefly wrapped her arms around herself. "I just think it's strange, Kasuga. Don't you think so?"

"Well of course it's strange." He agreed. "You can call the police while I go check on them, sempai."

A brief moan, shorter than the others, floated out of the alley again, punctuated by a sharp tone at the end, as if there had been a wince of pain.

Naoya looked down the alley and then back to Eiko before he gave her a smile. "I'm touched by your concern, sempai. But if it's someone who really is hurt then they need our help." He reached out and touched her shoulder. It was a brief contact, the kind team members might share between one another. For some reason, that show of camaraderie had a stronger affect on Eiko than a more intimate touch would have had.

She saw him step into the alley and she set down her gym bag and proceeded to dig out her cell phone. It was something that should have been simple for her but Eiko didn't want to take her eyes off Naoya as he wandered deeper into the alley. Finally, she found the slim plastic and metal shape of the phone, retrieved it, getting to her feet as she flipped open the device, and powered it up.

Her companion had moved a fair distance into the alley, circling around a heap of trash bags and had just stepped past a dumpster when he stopped. His head turned down to look at the space just beyond the dumpster and he knelt immediately, turning to face the unseen person.

She could hear him call out to them. "Hey! Are you okay?" She heaved a heavy sigh of relief and began to dial the number for the police. It looks like she may have been overreacting after all.

He ducked forward to speak again, his head briefly disappearing around the edge of the dumpster.

"Don't worry. We're going to help you, okay? Sempai is calling for help and-"

Naoya's voice froze and so did Eiko's fingers on the dial pad. It wasn't just that his voice had grown still but it seemed as if his whole body had gone tense. Eiko's heart crept up into her throat and she felt the sudden urge to call out to him. To tell him to get away, but her mouth seemed to be fighting her, refusing to work at all. Instead of her own voice, she heard Naoya's again. It started low and firm but steadily grew faster and higher, the tone building with surprise and then genuine fear.

"No. No! NO! Let go of me! Stay away! GOD!"

His shoes scrabbled against the asphalt and his hands were suddenly thrusting at the unseen person, desperately trying to push himself away. Eiko heard a sound, a low, phlegmatic slur unlike anything she had ever heard before. Suddenly he was skidding backwards, away from the would-be victim and, apparently, now predator. He sprung to his feet and belted down the alley towards her. His young face was pale with terror, the front of his shirt and throat glistened wetly.

"Eiko run!" Naoya bellowed, not bothering with honorifics in his flight as he collided with Eiko. She gave a short and frightened cry at the sudden push. Her phone flew from fingers that had gone numb with confusion and fear. She saw it cartwheel into the dark, a flash of the screen, and then nothing.

Her lost phone wasn't top of mind for Eiko now however. Instead, she felt herself pulled by Naoya down the street, his fingers digging almost painfully into her upper arm. Soon she recovered and matched his pace, her heart hammering hard and fast in her chest as they fled the alleyway.

"Naoya!" Eiko shouted in between breaths. "Naoya what happened? What did you see?"

A glance in his direction showed only the face of a gravely frightened young man. His eyes had a wide, glassy and haunted look to them that scared Eiko more than anything else did now. This close to him, she saw that there was something wet over the front of his throat and chest but before she could notice more than that, the light around them disappeared.

The streetlamps ahead of them were beginning to flicker and extinguish like the one she had seen only minutes ago. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed that the lamps behind them were darkening as well. They reached an intersection and Eiko guided Naoya down one of the side streets. She didn't know where they were or where they were heading, her sense of direction seeming to have taken flight when all the panic had set in.

Ahead she saw the streetlamps on this street begin to flicker and dim as well and her heart sank. Whatever was happening appeared to be following them and it wanted to keep them in the dark. She twisted her arm to grasp Naoya's hand in hers, grasping tight to him. His flesh felt cold and clammy within her grip and the boy didn't seem to be responding at all to her touch. While he had been the one to tell her to run, now it seemed like she was the one guiding him down the darkened streets. She could make out what she thought might be words he was murmuring whenever he wasn't gasping for breath but she couldn't hear enough to make any actual sense out of them. What had happened to him to leave him in such a state?

Naoya seemed to lurch to one side, she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and the force of his sudden deviation wrenched his hand from her grasp and threw the high school girl off balance. She spun, crying out before she landed hard on the sidewalk, the concrete biting into her hands and skinning her knees through her pants.

Eiko hissed in pain, pushing herself up onto her knees and rubbing her stinging palms on her thighs. She looked up to see if she could find what new path Naoya had decided to take but found herself only staring at a long line of closed down storefronts. She felt her panic bubbling higher within her body, threatening hysteria as she turned her head to quickly look up and down the shadow-filled street. Even in the darkness she should have been able to pick out the fleeing shadow of Naoya in the dark but, instead, she found herself completely alone on the stretch of concrete and asphalt.

She willed herself to stand upon trembling legs, her breath was coming in shorter and sharper gasps now as she felt her last nerve begin to shatter. She looked back up and down the empty street, as if she might see some sign of him that she hadn't before but she knew it was a fruitless gesture. Naoya was a fast runner but there's no way he could have slipped completely out of sight in the few seconds between her glance of him and her crash upon the sidewalk. He had simply vanished.

"Naoya!" She yelled. "Where are you? Naoya! Anybody!" Again she marveled at the seemingly abandoned streets. Where was everyone? Her voice sounded panicky and she remembered how much she hated it when women and girls behaved like that in the movies. But now here she was, on the verge of tears, in the dark and alone.

No. Not alone.

She heard footsteps upon the sidewalk behind her and she spun to face them, desperation beginning to fill her being. At first she thought Naoya had come back for her, her mind was frantic to believe that, but seeing the approaching figure she saw that they were too tall and dressed in some kind of long coat while Naoya had been in more casual clothes like herself. Regardless, Eiko almost sobbed with relief and began to stagger towards the man.

"Please!" She began. Her voice was rushing faster than she could manage, her words flowing together in a panicked stream of jargon. "Please! You have to help me! Naoya's gone! Something happened to him! Something was in the alley back there! It attacked him or something!"

The man continued to approach her even as she moved towards him. She could see him more clearly now; He was Asian and his features were impassive, almost bored. His hands were tucked into the deep pockets of the gray coat he wore and as Eiko continued to approach him, pleading for help, she saw one of his hands emerge from the coat, a small silvery object held neatly in its grasp.

Eiko froze. Her newfound relief left her as quickly as it had arrived replaced, first, with a sense of dumbfounded confusion. Then, as she identified the object, her confusion was overtaken by a fierce and irrational fear. Irrational, because the object he held was a pair of simple household scissors.

The man held them against his front, their full length showing to the girl. He moved his fingers slowly and the scissor blades parted and moved apart before he drew the blades shut again. They made a small and quiet snik that still seemed to fill the night air. The simple sound may as well have been a tolling funeral bell for the kind of shivery fear it filled Eiko with.

For a reason she couldn't even begin to comprehend, her mind was racing to dredge up memories of her past. She had snuck into a theater years ago to watch one of those hardcore violent films that she had always heard about. It had been a simple and routine act of juvenile disobedience that kids around her age seemed so inclined to enjoy. She had thought she would sit through the movie and then brag to her friends about what she had seen and how she had fooled the people at the ticket booth.

Instead she had felt revolted with the gaudy and sensational acts of violence and sex. She thought that, despite all of that, she might be able to stick it out to the end but then there had come a scene of torture that she found herself revisiting every so often in nightmares ever since.

A woman, Eiko couldn't remember what part she had played in the story and she supposed it didn't matter, had been caught by a gang of yakuza thugs. The men had gotten out a pair of scissors and slowly, methodically, cut off her shirt and bra. Then, in an act that had finally driven Eiko out of the theater, the camera had zoomed in on the woman's bare breasts and shown the men slowly and sadistically using the scissors to cut off her nipples.

All of these images flew through her mind in a matter of seconds. Her eyes fell upon the pair of scissors, her entire body tensing as she watched the man slowly open and close the scissors again.

_Snik._

"W-what it this…?" Her voice came in a raspy whisper, her throat so tightly constricted with fear that barely any noise was made at all. She began to slowly backpedal away from the man, her eyes riveted to the pair of small, silver scissors, watching the blades move open and shut.

_Snik._

This time the sound came from behind her and Eiko spun around to see yet another man approaching her from behind. This one looked nothing like the first man, his clothing was garish and colorful, his hair slicked into an outrageous style and his features were set into a cruel leer. He held a pair of identical scissors in his own hand, working them in the same slow and steady motion that the first man had. Around the corner beyond the man, she saw yet another man began to approach her. Even at this distance she could see he had the appearance of a generic yakuza thug and that he held something small and silvery before him.

Eiko whimpered, turning to slip out between the men approaching on either side, breaking to run across the street only to stop in her tracks. Two more yakuza were already moving towards her from across the street. Her mind spun in frenzy. The street had been empty only a minute ago! Where were all these men coming from?

She felt a hand grasp her shoulder firmly and she jerked away with a yelp. She turned and saw that, instead of the plain and bored looking man from before another yakuza had somehow taken his place. The thug smirked down at her and raised the scissors before her eyes. He snipped the blades once, sharply, just beyond the end of her nose.

Hands gripped her on all sides, shoving roughly and groping at her body through her clothes. The men laughed and jeered in low voices, shoving her back and forth between them. She thrust out her hands to shove the away, try to break free of their grasp, but instead found her wrists grasped and her momentum used against her, her body jerked off balance and shoved against the wide plate glass storefront window.

A part of her mind, a small part that still seemed strangely calm despite the rapid and serious turn of events, seemed to be insisting that none of this was happening. This was too bizarre. Too nightmarish to actually be real and things weren't actually what they seemed.

But another part of her mind, much louder and stronger, gave free reign to the fear that bubbled up within the high school girl. She screamed out into the night sky when she felt brushes of cool, smooth metal against her stomach and a chorus of _snik snik _as the yakuza quickly began to shear off her shirt.

Never had she felt so frightened. She almost felt like it wasn't actually happening to her. She was in that theater again, watching this happen to another hapless girl. Her fingers curled and uncurled fitfully against the night air, her legs kicking out against her attackers but finding air more often than the knees and groins she was aiming for.

She felt one of the yakuza press his hand flat against her face. At first she thought he was trying to cover her mouth to silence her screams but he seemed, instead, to press his hand firmly against her eyes as if making some late attempt to hide their identities from her. His hand moved to press against her throat, a firm pressure but nowhere near the strength needed to choke her.

The yakuza's leering face disappeared. All of their faces disappeared. Though Eiko still felt something pinning her body against the window the four thugs that had surrounded her began to lose definition, instead their bodies shimmering like heat mirages.

Her attackers didn't fade away, however. And when she saw them begin to regain shape and detail, she knew that this had to be a nightmare. She gathered her breath to send another scream into the night.

Eiko never made another sound. And when the streetlamps finally flared back to life, an empty street was the only scene they had to reveal.


End file.
